The Ultimate Sacrifice
by MissMadi
Summary: AU. At the end of the battle in 02, the Digidestined are faced with a life-changing choice. Four years later, they have tried to forget the horrors of their past decision, all except for one.
1. Prologue

**November 9, 2009**

**AN:** I thought of this idea yesterday (or maybe it was the day before) and couldn't put it down. So I wrote this prologue in about an hour and a half and just decided to post it. I'm a very unreliable writer so I apologize now if I never continue or finish this story (because as well as being unreliable, I'm also very busy – see AN for chapter 3 of Odaiba High for further explanation) but I really like this idea and if a lot of other people do too then I will feel more inspired to continue it. Sound good? Well, leave a review if you desire to see this continued or hate it and think I should jump off a cliff – whichever floats your boat.

Also, I only read over this twice to I apologize if there are any errors and would appreciate it if some kind soul would feel inclined as to point them out to me in a review.

* * *

_The Ultimate Sacrifice_

Prologue

Winter days always seem the same to him. There's only so many different ways that the sky can be gray and overcast, that the mist can coat the grass and the frost can cover his older sister's car in the driveway. When a person has seen one dreary winter day, he or she has seen them all.

It was hard to remain optimistic with so many days like that one. Winters were so long and depressing in Odaiba. Summer was always way too short for his preference. As soon as it started, it ended. Summer days flew by, because it was during summer than his positive attitude was in full throttle. It was during those short summer days that he felt the most hope that the horrors of his past could finally be undone. However, summer always ended much too soon for him to make any progress and winter came back around. Maybe if he lived somewhere that was always summer – maybe then he would get something done.

It was the fourth winter now – the fourth horrid, desolate winter for him to lose himself in despair. He remembered not thinking that he would be able to make it through the first one but, somehow, he did. He thought the same thing about the second, and the third, and now the fourth. But even though he didn't know how he would be able to, he knew he would make it through. He made it through the first three. He'll make it through this one, too.

And hopefully he wouldn't have to live through a fifth one as well.

The spiky haired brunette boy zipped up his winter coat, pulled on a pair of long pants and tied his tennis shoes before grabbing his backpack and leaving his house. School didn't start for another hour but he wouldn't be able to sleep in any longer.

It was freezing outside. He felt as if his eyelashes and eyebrows were frosting over at the very exposure to the biting cold air. He sighed when remembering that he'd forgotten his gloves on his nightstand. Shoving his hands into his jacket pockets, he kept walking. Since it was the beginning of winter, there was no snow yet. It was only a matter of time, though.

He liked to take the long route to school – the one that took him to the edge of the ocean. It was much faster if he just walked directly to his school from his house, but he enjoyed walking along the ocean. The ocean gave him hope, even on the most miserable of winter days. He had seen someone be transported to another world from this very ocean, so maybe, just maybe, if he walked by it every day, he could be transported to another world, too.

The boy ran a hand through his hair to keep the bits of mist out of it. Even though it had been years since he'd worn goggles, he still felt strange without them. The very few friends that he had kept over the years told him he looked weird without them and that he should put them back on, but he knew that he never would. The boy that had given him those goggles had let him down in a way that he never thought possible, and in return those goggles lay smashed, dusty, and forgotten in the back of his closet.

He reached the cliff overlooking the ocean, a mile from his school. He stopped walking and stood facing the ocean, staring at it, squinting in the hopes that he would spy a portal with his naked eye. He reached back into his backpack and extracted a small, computer-like device. He gripped the blue device tightly in his hand and held it out to the ocean defiantly, clenching his jaw and concentrating with all of his might.

_Take me back. Please… just take me back._

He remained in that position for so long that he was sure that after a while he was frozen. Finally, after concentrating so hard that his head started to pound, he exhaled deeply, his breath freezing before his eyes, and let his arm drop limply back to his side. Nearly every day for the last three and a half years he had tried this. After being told that he would never be able to get back through a computer, he decided that the ocean was his best bet. He came every single day, even on weekends and vacations, and tried with all of his might to get back. Every day he tried to remain positive. Every day he told himself that today would be the day that it would open. He could never miss a day, because what if that was the day that it decided to open? What if it only opened every five years? He couldn't take the chance of missing it.

Holding the device up to his eye level, he glared at it. It had not so much as lit up in four years and he grew angry at it. All it had to do was beep to life and light up and he would be home free. It was all up to this stupid, little computer.

He reared his arm back and threw the device down the cliff, letting out a yell as he did so. The mini-computer sailed through the air and landed fifty feet below him in the sand, near the tide. He breathed in heavily, adrenaline pumping with his anger. He clenched and unclenched his fingers to keep the blood flowing, and a moment later regretted his actions. He grumbled to himself as he walked over to the stairs that would take him down to the beach.

The cold sand got into his socks and shoes as he trudged through the beach. He could spy his blue device in the brown sand from ten feet away. He bent down, picked it up, and looked at it closely. It was covered in sand, but still in perfect condition – except for the fact that it remained dark and lifeless.

He shook his head and placed it back into the same pocket of his backpack that he had been keeping it in for the last four years. Turning on his heel, he started the rest of his walk to school.

He would be back tomorrow. And the next day, and the day after that. He would continue to come all through the winter, and during spring, and during the summer. He would come every single day until he died. He would not stop until he could go back and make up for the atrocity that he and ten other people had committed four years earlier.

He would try until it killed him.


	2. Chapter 1

**December 17, 2009**

**AN:** It took me about two and a half weeks to write this chapter. Lame. But I got it done, so hooray! I quite enjoy it. I think it's just the right amount of ambiguity and clarity that I was aiming for and hopefully you all enjoy. :) As always, I would love to know your thoughts and opinions on it, as well as constructive criticism.

PS. I got a new laptop that does not have Microsoft Word yet, so I am typing this on something that does not have spell check, so I apologize if there are any errors. I proof-read it three times but I still miss things sometimes.

_The Ultimate Sacrifice_

Chapter 1

He doesn't know it, but she sees him there every day.

She started coming to the ocean after the final battle. The ocean once transported her to a world that she didn't know or understand. Now she lives in a world that she doesn't know or understand and the ocean gives her hope that maybe everything will return to normal one day. One day, maybe, they can fix it.

In all the years that she's seen him there, not once has she talked to him, or even let him see her for that matter. She doesn't know what she would say to him, anyway. He blames her as much as he blames everyone else. And rightfully so, after all. As much as she tries to lie to herself about that day and convince herself that her only crime was not speaking up, she's so very wrong.

He probably wouldn't even want to talk to her. It's hard to believe sometimes that the guy who used to worship the very gravel that touched the bottom of her shoes would so quickly turn against her.

She sees him point his Digivice toward the ocean every morning before school, standing still as a stone statue for sometimes up to twenty minutes, with no results. Sometimes, she's tempted to bring hers to try the same thing, but she just can't. She put hers in a junk shoe box years ago and pushed it far back in a corner under her bed. Sometimes when looking for a missing sock she'll catch sight of that box and even just that makes her feel sick to her stomach. She doesn't have enough personal strength to open that box and look at her abandoned Digivice. The memories that come with it haunt her to her very core.

Maybe if she still had her friends. Thinking about them also makes her stomach lurch with regret. None of them have been able to remain in touch since the battle ended. She couldn't even maintain relationships with her best friend and her brother.

The last time she and T.K. spoke, it was about four months after the end of the battle. Neither of them had been the same since it happened and they had been fighting a fair amount in the weeks leading up to their last interaction, which turned into a massive row.

Her defense mechanism in justifying what had happened was her claiming not to hold any responsibility. She didn't say anything, so it wasn't her fault. That thought is what got her to sleep at night. Of course, her statement was grossly inaccurate and she knew it. Because of this, she became even more distressed and had to find another way to appease herself of responsibility.

And so, she would blame everyone else. T.K. was the first one to speak up when it happened, so he must hold more responsibility than she, right? When she said this to him, something in T.K. snapped. The months of harboring extreme guilt just lashed out against her. Prior to this, she had never been involved in such a horrible screaming match.

She and T.K. never spoke again. They refused to speak to each other during classes and avoided each other during passing periods and lunch. Their friends were shocked, since the two had always been so close. Sure, they had their disagreements lately, but what two people didn't after such a long friendship? But the two never reconciled. About a month after their fight, T.K. and his mom moved back to Kyoto. Their parents weren't stupid; they knew that something happened after the final battle that completely morphed them as people. T.K.'s mom probably thought that if she took her son away from the place where it happened, it would be easier on him. T.K. may have even suggested the move. She doesn't know.

As if losing her best friend wasn't horrible enough, her relationship with her older brother has become seemingly nonexistent. She and her brother used to be as close as two siblings could be. They were each others' closest confidantes. She would go to her brother for advice on everything.

And suddenly, she couldn't talk to him about anything. Every time they would look at each other, the knowledge of what they had participated in lingered. She could no longer look at her brother for the same reasons she couldn't look at her Digivice – it was a constant reminder.

She tried to place the blame on her brother, too. Everyone knew that she looked up to him and always trusted what he had to say. She tried to justify her actions by saying that she had trust that her older brother always knew best. Needless to say, he wasn't happy about that and snapped to her that she had to start owning up to her mistakes.

She and her brother hadn't had a real conversation in years. They lived in the same house but were essentially strangers. Aside from the, "Hi, how are you?" greetings they exchanged and other forced casual talk when their parents were around, they rarely spoke. She found herself counting down to when he would graduate high school and leave for college.

Sighing, she glanced up. Her mind had gotten lost in thought during her excruciatingly boring math class. Her eyes shifted sideways to where Davis was sitting, hunched over. His pencil was positioned over his notebook, but it was not moving. He was thinking about the same things she was.

She and Davis just happened to be in the same math class because both of them had let their schoolwork go over the years and thus were forced to take remedial math to make up for their absymal grades. It's difficult to focus on homework and tests and note-taking when her head is full of thoughts she can't get rid of. Unfortunately, it's even more difficult when she has a class with Davis, because every time she looks at him, she remembers.

Davis is the person she sees the most, aside from her brother. The rest of them are scattered about. T.K. is in Kyoto; Ken is across town, still at his private school; Mimi is in America; Joe graduated high school and went off to a university supposedly very far away; and Sora's family moved, but she's not sure exactly where. Everyone else that still lives in Odaiba just avoids each other at all costs. It's usually easy for her; no one else except Davis is in her same grade. If she can get away from Davis next year, then, with her brother away in college, maybe she'll be free.

* * *

He woke up at eleven-thirty in the morning. Groaning, he rolled over and rubbed his throbbing eyes. Once again, he had slept through his alarm clock and missed school. He didn't particularly care, though. School was no longer much of a priority to him. He hadn't been in attendance at all this week and his dad was rarely around for school officials to contact him. He expected to be kicked out soon. Whatever. He might as well drop out.

His head was pounding. His room was pitch black due to his drawn shades, which helped, but his head continued to throb. He sat up, putting a hand to his temple and taking a deep breath, before reaching into the top drawer of his nightstand. He pulled out a small baggie filled with a green herb. He poured a bit of it into multi-colored pipe buried beneath a pile of papers, a dirty paper plate, a few cans of soda, and other shit he had strewn about. Taking a lighter from his sweat pants pocket, he lit the pipe and inhaled deeply. He held his breath, keeping the smoke circulating in his lungs for about thirty seconds, before he exhaled the plume of smoke. A moment later he took another hit. Within minutes, he felt his headache clearing.

He turned on his lamp on the floor near his bed and picked up his acoustic guitar. It had been years since he'd played with a band of any kind, but he still played music every single day. Sometimes he sang, but usually he just strummed. It was hard for him to sing a song that matched his mood, because not many songwriters have been in the same situation he was in. He could always write his own, but if he wrote about it, then he would have to think about it, and he didn't like doing that. It would defeat the purpose of getting high.

As he picked aimlessly at the chords on his guitar, he wondered where he was going to be in a year. Still here, in his dark room, smoking joints as soon as he woke up and playing guitar all day long? It's what he'd been doing for so long, he couldn't imagine anything else.

Sometimes he wished T.K. was still in Odaiba. T.K. had always been the most important person in his life - his younger brother, someone he had to protect and watch out for. Most importantly, T.K. needed him. But not anymore. Not since he had made a horrible decision that surely shattered T.K.'s opinion of him. T.K. used to tell him, "Don't worry so much of what I think about you. I was there, too, and I agreed with you. I made the same awful decision as you. You're not responsible for what I do." But he just couldn't. T.K. may claim that he can make his own decisions, but, as his older brother, he should have taught him better.

T.K. got tired of trying to lift his spirits, so he just gave up completely. He suggested to their mom to move back to Kyoto and she jumped on the opportunity. T.K. just couldn't bear to be in Odaiba any longer, what with the constant reminders. He and T.K. haven't spoken in over a year. His father tries to get him to call T.K.; he always lies and said that he did while his dad was at work.

He wonders what Tai is doing. He doesn't really know what happened to anyone else, besides T.K. Well, and Sora. Sometimes he sees Tai when he goes to school, but they never talk. They used to be best friends, but they have nothing to say to each other anymore. Besides, Tai is the epitome of douchebag-ness. He hangs out with the biggest dicks at their school, bullies underclassmen, and is just overall an asshole. They don't have anything in common anymore.

He and Sora were kind of seeing each other at the time it happened. They weren't technically dating, but if their lives had continued like normal people's lives usually did, they would have dated. Afterwards, though, it became too much. They couldn't talk about anything except what happened. Their experiences together were rooted to the Digital World; those memories were forever tainted and thus so were the relationships formed during that time. They mutually broke off conact after about a month,

While he couldn't be around her one-on-one, he still looked forward to seeing her everyday. Seeing her, while inflicting horrible memories in him, also reminded him of a time where he had been truly happy for the first and only time in his life. He woke up in the morning and went to school every day just to see her. On the outside, she seemed to be normal. She kept her same friends (minus him, Tai, and the others), continued playing tennis, and did well in school. They would speak casually, if they saw each other in the hallways, but that was the extent of it.

Then, one day after summer vacation, she was gone. She wasn't at school for a week and he panicked. He asked one of her friends, who had given him a strange look. She told him that Sora had moved away right after the previous school year ended. Her family moved her two towns over because the school had a better sports program and tennis team. He knew that there was more to it, though - Sora had to get away from it, like T.K. had.

It was too hard to not blame himself. Everyone had a part in it, everyone willingly participated and agreed with it, but _he_ was the one that bore the crest of friendship. He should have been the one to protest it. He shouldn't have let it happen.

He closed his eyes and inhaled. There were too many thoughts spiraling around in his mind and they were causing his head to hurt. He reached over to his pipe again and lit it. He took a hit and held it in for as long as he could before looking up to the his ceiling and blowing out smoke rings.

He placed his guitar back on its stand and stood up, stepping into the sunlight-filled living room. He squinted and shielded his eyes briefly, waiting for his eyes to get used to the light. Playing guitar was making him think too much; he was going to lose himself in television and not think about anything for the rest of the day.

* * *

He was always the brains. He was always the one that everyone went to when they needed a solution. He had the computer and the brain that absorbed information like a vacuum. He was the one that figured out what the Digital World was the first time they were there. He had always had an answer.

However, the time they needed one the most was the one time he couldn't come up with one.

He still can't understand what happened. There has _always_ been an answer; they have _always_ been able to rely on him to figure something out. What other use was there for the brainy kid with the ever-present laptop, anyway?

Unfortunately, his laptop was no longer permanently attatched to his back. The laptop that stayed with him through most of his travels in the Digital World was now abandoned and dusty in the far reaches of his closet. He had a new computer, a desktop so he cannot take it anywhere with him. He no longer extensively works on or studies computers. What good was it? They weren't able to help him when it was most important.

For months after everyone else had long given up, he still tried. He would sit in front of his computer all night long, until his vision blurred and his eyeballs ran bloodshot. He would type so swiftly and so long that the letters on the keys began to wear off. He once stayed up for seventy-six straight hours before passing out in the middle of his math class.

He just couldn't do it. His computer did not have the anwers that he was looking for and he didn't know where else to look. He couldn't understand why the portal wouldn't just open. No matter how long he left his Digivice sitting next to his computer, waiting for it to activate, nothing ever worked. The Digivice remained silent and the portal sealed.

After that, he found his faith in himself slipping drastically, like trying to cup liquid in one's hands. He had let everyone down. His grades dropped and he grew distant from his friends. They were all computer geeks and, when he abandoned his computer, the one thing they all had in common changed. He did make new friends, but it was just different. His new friends didn't know what the old him was like.

He wishes that he was still friends with the other Digidestined but it seemed like none of them wanted to be around each other. He couldn't understand why. He felt sick about the entire situation but that didn't mean he didn't want to be around everyone else. They were the only people in the world that knew how he felt. What he thought would happen was they would all become closer - boy, was he wrong.

He and Joe tried. They really did. But Joe preferred to be alone, like everyone else had. Joe broke it to him by skirting around the truth. He told him that if he wanted to go to medical school, he needed to focus and that he didn't really have time. Now he's away at college - all the way on the other side of the country.

He sighed and glanced up. He had arrived at his apartment building after walking home from school. As he adjusted his backpack, he mused at how he never got used to how light it was without the weight of his laptop.

He climbed up the stairs to his floor, wondering how many more times he would have to do it. His parents had been talking about moving to a different town. They, of course, had noticed the change in him and were extremely worried. He had refused going to see a therapist probably thirteen times and never told them what was wrong with him. They would never believe him, anyway. They did know that it was related to the war with the Digital World, though, and they thought that it would be healthy for him to get away. They held the same thought process that he was sure T.K.'s mom and Sora's parents had had when they moved away.

He wasn't sure how he thought about it. He wouldn't really mind moving; maybe if he moved away, he could start over. He could be around people that knew absolutely nothing about him and he could rebuild his life and himself. But at the same time, he had a strong connection with Odaiba and he was afraid that if he left it would symbolize him giving up for good.

* * *

She hates everyone.

She hates that she still feels sick about what happened, even four years later. She hates that she lives in America while everyone else is in Japan. She hates that she cried herself to sleep every single night for a year. She hates that no one wanted to talk to her or each other after it happened because they couldn't deal with their own decisions. She hates that she had to go through it all alone.

She just wanted them to be able to help each other. That's what they had always done. Sure, some of them had their disagreements and didn't always get along, but they had always been there for each. They had always been in it together. And suddenly, they weren't. Suddenly, everyone was living separate lives and didn't want anything to do with each other.

She tried to stay close with them. Pretty much all of them told her that they wanted alone time and then never got back to her. Izzy said that he too wished they could all be close again but even he was distant and vague to she gave up on him eventually, too.

She hated them all. For the first year, she would weep and pray as hard as she could that one of them would call her, tell her that it was okay, and just talk to her. She just wanted one of them to say to her that it was a mistake, but that it wasn't so bad because they had all made it together and they all understand. That never happened, though. Instead of supporting each other, they blamed each other. None of them ever called her so she was forced to wallow in her own guilt.

Her sorrow turned to anger after the first year. She grew furious at them all. Some friends they were! The most horrifying and tragic thing to ever happen in all of their lives and they all scattered. No support, no nothing. She couldn't stand thinking about any of it.

She hated throwing stuff away, but she gathered everything that reminded her of her old friends and the DigiWorld and put it in a box that was in the very back corner of her large walk-in closet; the beautiful pink hat Sora got her for her birthday one year; the stuffed flower that Palmon got her to remind her of her; and her Digivice.

She just wanted to forget it all. She wanted to forget about the friends that abandoned her. She wanted to forget about the Digimon that she couldn't seem to figure out how to get back to. It hurt too much remember the good times and to realize that she will never see any of them again. She sometimes wished that a machine like the one in the movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was real - a machine that could erase a certain event or person from someone's memory. Very late some nights, when she couldn't sleep because her memories kept her awake, she would want so badly to just erase them all and forget everything. No more Digiworld, no more Digidestined, no more Palmon. None of it would have happened.

It was one of those nights. It was two-thirty in the morning and she had school the next day but she was wide awake. She hugged her pillow to her face as tears streamed down her face. She wanted to go back and redo it all. She wished that she could travel back in time and change what happened so that everything could be normal.

And, of course, it would bring him back.


	3. Chapter 2

February 12, 2010

**AN:** I wrote the first half of this in December and the second half today, as I am enjoying a wonderful eight hour bus and train ride home from school. How I love sitting for half of my day! Not. But it's okay, because the train is fairly comfortable and I am able to get some writing done! It's either this or catch up on my five days worth of math homework, study for my math midterm, or do astronomy homework. I think I'll write.

I hope you enjoy this chapter!

_The Ultimate Sacrifice_

Chapter 2

He should've known that it was too good to be true.

The first time that he had ever had friends, had ever felt accepted and wanted by people that weren't his parents, had been such a high point in his life - but he should have known that it wouldn't last. Good things like that didn't happen to him.

He's glad that he lives across town from everyone. He doesn't have to worry about them seeing them and having to deal with constantly being reminded of what happened.

Besides, he remembers enough anyway. He doesn't get much sleep at night. His head is too full of everything; thoughts, memories, regrets, what could have been. After his sixth time falling asleep in school, his parents took him to the doctor. He had lied and told his doctor that he was just overwhelmed by his studies. The doctor had believed him and told his parents not to worry. He became better at being discrete about his sleeping patterns; instead of sleeping during class, he would hold off until lunch.

His insomnia has faded over the last four years but it is definitely still there. For the first year he got an average of two hours of sleep per night. On weekends he would pass out from exhaustion and then the cycle would repeat itself.

After the first year, he got better at clearing his head so that what was inside of it didn't keep him up all night long. It didn't work all the way, but it helped. He started getting around five hours of sleep at night, which meant that he no longer fell asleep during the school day. It had been so long since he'd been able to sleep through the night like a normal person that he didn't even remember what it was like.

Sometimes, on nights where he knows he won't be able to sleep, he decides to try and at least use his time productively. He'll take out his Digivice, set it next to his computer, and try to find a portal. He's never able to, of course. Izzy Izumi could never find one and if he can't, no one can. But he at least had to try.

Other times, he would try to talk to Wormmon through it. After all, the Digivice was the one thing he had as a link to the Digital World. It may have not lit up in over four years but once upon a time it had. That means that there's always a possibility that it will activate again.

In any case, it never worked. He never opened a portal and he was never able to effectively communicate with Wormmon. He often pretended that he could, though. He could talk to his Digivice as if it was really Wormmon and tell him about his life. He would tell him about how guilty he was over what had happened and how no one was friends anymore; how his times with Wormmon and the other Digidestined in the Digital World were the best times of his life; how he distanced himself from his parents because everyone that he loved in his life seemed to disappear in some way - his brother, his friends - and they could be next. He always felt so foolish after realizing that he had talked to a miniature computer for an hour, but he would always find himself doing it again.

Sometimes he missed the Digital World so much it hurt. Even though much of it was spent fighting, he missed it terribly. Except, of course, the part of it spent when he was evil. That wasn't so great. And what's more, he never thought that something would happen in his life that would make him feel even worse than what he did to the Digital World during that time. Yes, he was awful, but he was also brainwashed and didn't realize what he was doing. With this, he was one-hundred percent liable. He knew exactly what he was doing and what it entailed. They all did. They were all guilty.

He didn't really know what everyone else was up to. For all he knew, they all could have packed up and moved to Europe and he would never know. Odaiba was big and he lived all the way across town. He hadn't seen any of them since the couple weeks after it happened - the last time they had all met at Izzy's to discuss what they were going to do. After that, he heard nothing from anyone.

He missed them a lot. Them and Wormmon - what he wouldn't give for everything to be normal again. His greatest wish is that one morning he would wake up to his phone ringing, a call from Izzy saying they were going back. Even if it was to fight - he would be elated. He would be out the door and to Izzy's in five seconds.

But phone calls never came. His Digivice never activated. A portal never opened. Wormmon never answered him. It would never change.

* * *

She always had a short temper, but it had gotten even shorter over the last few years. Her parents and older siblings tread around her now as if she was a bomb about to go off. If they said anything wrong, she would yell at them and usually stay angry for days.

She wasn't really angry at them, though. It was really anger at herself; she just took it out on other people. It's easier to yell at other people than herself. Besides, it worked as a win-win situation. Since people were so afraid that she would explode on them, they tended to leave her alone, which is just what she wanted. She didn't really want to talk to anyone.

At school, she was left alone. When a person snaps at others for just being asked a simple question, that person tends to develop a negative reputation and is thus avoided. Whatever. Who needs them, anyway? She doesn't care if they think she's a freak. It's not like she has anything to talk about with anyone. None of them understand.

One problem with her ever-worsening attitude was that her parents stuck her at work in their family store more and more. Otherwise she was just sitting at home doing nothing, so her parents reasoned that they might as well put her to work. And this was a problem because her convenience store is right near her school and is a popular spot for teenagers to buy snacks for cheap. So while she got to spend all of her school day with people she hated, she had to deal with them buying food from her after school and on weekends too. The best times were Saturday nights when her school was having formal dances and girls would walk in with slutty dresses and five-inch high heels and a suit-wearing boy on their arm and buy gum and giggle at her because she was wearing her uniform and glasses and sitting, very bored, behind the counter.

She wondered what it was like to lead a life where a person never had to think or worry about anything. Sure, her peers would complain that they had to worry about homework and tests and friends, but those weren't _real_ worries. A few years from now they'll look back and remember how stupid they were for caring about these things.

But that's not the same with her. She has real worries. She has real problems. She looks back on her experiences in the DigiWorld and those had been _real_ worries. Fighting to save the world from evil creatures was something that she didn't look back on after a year and laugh about. Maybe some things about it they all would have laughed together about, but the situation as a whole was a serious one.

And then, of course, there was what happened to him.

That was definitely no laughing matter. It was something she will never, ever laugh about. She will be one-hundred and fifteen years old, living in an old home with only nurses to keep her company, and she will still never laugh about what happened four years ago. None of them will.

In fact, she rarely laughs at all anymore. She's usually in such a bad mood at all times that there isn't anything that makes her want to laugh. But if she ever does laugh at something, she immediately thinks of what happens and stops. It doesn't seem fair that she is able to laugh.

The only time she feels something other than anger is when she feels lonely. Sometimes her loneliness completely envelops and she doesn't know what to do. Things would be so different if it had never happened. Maybe she would be one of those girls wearing fancy dresses with a cute boy on her arm as she made her way to a formal dance. Maybe she would be like one of those girls she saw whenever her mother dragged her to the mall, trying on clothes and giggling with friends.

Maybe she wouldn't feel as if she was living an empty existence every single day of her life.

* * *

It helps being really far away.

Sometimes he feels bad, because his mom will ask him to please visit for a long weekend or to stay longer than two days in the winter (Christmas Eve and Christmas Day) but he doesn't like it. His parents' new apartment is right near the Bay, the site where most of their battles took place. He doesn't like being near it because he doesn't like thinking about it.

When he was in high school, he drowned himself in his schoolwork. He did nothing but study for hours on end. He had no friends to distract him and no hobbies to take up his time. He just studied constantly.

His high school graduation couldn't have come faster. It worked out in his favor that the top pre-medical school in Japan was on the other side of the country; thankfully he got in and he packed up his bags and moved out his house within the week of his graduation. He told his parents that he needed to go down as early as possible to get started on his studies.

Well, this wasn't a _total_ lie.

He's really good at forgetting. He's really good at being able to immerse himself in one thing and allowing that to completely take over his mind. It's why he's always done so well in school. It didn't change when he went to college. His classes were harder and more challenging than he ever could have imagined so he just shut himself in his dorm room or spent hours in the library and he was able to get everything done.

He didn't make friends, he didn't get involved in extracurricular activities – he just studied.

Studying took complete mental ability. When a person is studying, they can't be thinking of anything else. But when a person is hanging out with friends, their minds can wander. When a person is watching a sports game or hanging out at a party, they don't have to focus all of their brainpower on what is going on at that exact moment.

And when his mind wanders, it goes to places that he doesn't want it to go. It goes back four years ago to _that day_, the day that everything changed: the last day that he was a part of a group; the last day he had friends; the last day that he had a sense of purpose in the world. Sure, he wanted to be a doctor and, based on his grades and work ethics so far, he was going to be a damn good one. But he didn't get the same feeling that he used to get. Being a doctor wasn't what his life was leading up to.

It's not like he can do anything to change it, though. He can never go back. It can never be the same. It can never be undone.

* * *

He never thought that he would ever want to leave Odaiba. But then again, he never thought that something so horrific would ever happen that would make his stomach churn just by looking at simple sites throughout the city. It got to the point that he couldn't look at the Bay, his dad's TV station, or even his school. Every day that he went to school, memories came to him that he couldn't deal with.

Then, it became people that he couldn't look at, and, worst of all, those people were his friends. His own brother. The girl he'd loved as more than a best friend. Suddenly, he couldn't look at them.

He didn't last much longer in Odaiba after it happened. It was four, maybe five, months. He couldn't even make it through the rest of the school year. His mom knew something was up – their parents weren't stupid; they knew something had happened. They didn't know what, but they knew that something about the Final Battle had messed with them.

His mom was elated when he suggested they move back to Kyoto. He suspected that she'd wanted to go back as soon as all the fighting began, but she never did because she knew he had to be in Odaiba. When he recommended moving, it was his way of telling her that the fighting was done for forever.

Unfortunately, she didn't realize that is also meant he was going to break off contact from his brother. He and Matt hadn't spoken in probably three years. Every time his mother would tell him to call Matt, he would lie and said he did it while she was at work. After a few months, he knew that she stopped believing him but she couldn't do anything about it.

It was strange being in Kyoto. It was weird no longer having the burden of the world's safety sagging on his shoulders. It was hard to get used to only worrying about schoolwork.

He didn't make friends that easily; he became friends again with the people he'd known from junior high, when he used to live in Kyoto, but he was very different from the person he used to be and the person they used to know. He didn't really make any new ones. He just hung around with his old friends, who didn't care that he was different because they'd known each other for so long. Without them, he'd probably spend more of his time alone.

Even though he was a little different, he kept himself busy. When he wasn't hanging out with his friends, he was exercising at the gym, playing basketball, swimming, biking, or doing something else that kept his mind focused. He even was able to keep his grades fairly high. His mother was delighted at the seemingly positive change in him. She would constantly remark on how the move to Odaiba was a bad choice and that they should never have left Kyoto.

What she doesn't know is that, very slowly, his constant activity was taking its toll on him. He doesn't sleep well at night because he has frequent nightmares. It has nearly gotten to the point where he is subconsciously afraid to go to sleep and his body will keep him awake for as long as possible. When he does sleep, it is not a deep sleep and he is woken up, on average, one to three times every night.

Three years, give or take a few months, of him keeping his busy and mind as busy as possible combined with not getting enough sleep has started to make him feel unwell. He doesn't know what to do about it, though. He can't stop what he's been doing because then he knows he'll sink into a sort of depression. He can't tell his mom about his sleeping patterns because then she'll ask why he gets nightmares, and he can never tell her or anyone else.

He has no choice but to continue with his normal habits. He'll make it. He'll find a way to get by on minimal sleep. He doesn't know what else to do.


	4. Chapter 3

**February 26, 2010**

**AN: **I think this is the shortest gap between updates so far. Yay! After I wrote chapter 1, I was bored at home for the weekend and I wrote this chapter, chapter 4, and half of chapter 5. It's starting to get good! Next chapter you'll know what The Event is that happened. Hopefully you're not disappointed… :)

_The Ultimate Sacrifice_

Chapter 3

He never thought he would resent being a leader.

He always thrived on leadership. Being a leader was something that just came naturally to him. He just felt comfortable standing in front of a group of people and telling them what needed to be done. It didn't matter if it was with a group of his friends or a group of strangers. Taking charge was just something he did.

Over his years as being considered one of the leaders of the Digidestined, he'd never really cared about the negatives. Sure, there were problems over time and there were sometimes people who questioned, and even challenged, his leadership, but he didn't mind. He liked a challenge. Usually he was right or, if not, he learned from it. There's always room for improvement.

But he never thought that anything like this would ever happen. This is something that he cannot make right. This is something that never should have happened in the first place. This is something that made him realize he is not worthy of being a leader. A true leader would never have let something like this happen. Everyone has flaws, but a leader was supposed to have more sense than this.

Not a day goes by that he doesn't blame himself. Yes, everyone played a part and everyone made the same mistake, but he held the most blame of all. He was the leader. Everyone looks to leaders to make the right decisions. Like the CEO of a company, he has to take responsibility for what everyone else was involved in.

He doesn't take charge anymore. He has become extremely passive instead of being assertive. He doesn't make decisions for a group of people anymore. In group projects at school, he takes a back seat. When hanging out with his friends, he doesn't make suggestions. He follows what everyone else says and does not hold an opinion. If someone picks a bad movie to go see, everyone blames that person. He never realized how easy it was to stay out of trouble and keep life simple by not being a leader.

Sometimes he has to stop himself. It hasn't always been easy. He still has an instinct inside of him to speak up when something is being done that he thinks is stupid or doesn't agree with. He's gotten pretty good at holding himself back, though. Four years of practice has made him a master.

He's counting down the days until he graduates from high school and finally leaves this place. He can't wait to leave Odaiba behind and not have to deal with what it represents to him. He is ready to leave behind everything he knows, including the people, to start a new life. He'll always love his parents and, of course, his sister, but that doesn't mean he's ready to not see them for a very long time.

It's especially hard to be around Kari. They used to be exceptionally close but now they barely talk. He loves his sister but she's been reacting to what happened in the complete opposite way that he has. While he blames himself completely, she blames everyone else. She tries to blame everyone else for what happened and claim that her silence makes her innocent. It is because of this attitude that she and T.K. don't speak anymore, as well as why he can't stand talking to her.

One thing he misses is soccer. When his grades start going down, his parents forced him to quit – although he had been planning it for a while. He just didn't have the energy to continue with it. He could barely attend school every day. He was just so sick of being in Odaiba that he barely could wake up every morning. He lived for his weekends when he and his friends would go out and rage every Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights.

He loved alcohol. He loved how it tasted, he loved what it did to him, and he loved how it made him not think about anything important. It was the only thing he did in Odaiba that didn't make him itching to leave. He loved getting drunk with his friends and he knew he would miss those nights – but the wonderful thing about alcohol is that he could drink it anywhere.

* * *

She thought that maybe moving to a new place would be easier.

And, well, she was sort of right.

A few months after the Final Battle, she convinced her parents that the high school a couple towns over from Odaiba had a much better tennis program and that she would be happier there. Her parents were confused; she'd always loved Odaiba. She'd grown up there and all of her best friends were there. Her desire to leave had taken them completely by surprise. However, they complied, and once the school year got out they moved.

She was sad for a while. After all, she'd never lived anywhere but Odaiba. As hard as it was for her to be around them, she missed all of her friends, particularly Tai and Matt. They grew apart fairly quickly after the Final Battle, but she still enjoyed seeing them at school every day. The knowledge that she will likely never see either again was hard to accept sometimes.

She tried to commit herself completely to tennis once she moved away from Odaiba. She played constantly and got much better than she ever thought she could get. She keeps herself busy with friends, school, and tennis so much that she doesn't get a time to rest.

Every once in a while, though, she breaks down – probably once every other month. She'll wake up after a horrible nightmare and just won't be able to get out of bed. On these days, she has no control over herself and she has no energy whatsoever. She'll just lie in bed all day, crying on and off, and won't do anything. God forbid she has a tennis competition or a test on those days – she won't go. She just can't.

She hates herself for what happened. She legitimately hates herself. She has the crest of love but she doesn't deserve it. She was right all those years ago when she said that she didn't deserve it. She was stupid for listening to everyone. There was a reason it didn't light up for so long. She was so selfish; she shouldn't have the crest of love.

Her mom worried, but didn't ask questions. Her dad is never around and doesn't really notice anything. Her mom has always been passive. If her mom knows that she doesn't want to talk about something, she won't even ask. Her mom doesn't force her to go to school or to tennis or anything when she's having one of her days. Not that she would go, anyway.

She doesn't know if she will ever be able to forgive herself. She really doesn't. She cannot even imagine one scenario for her life that includes her forgiving herself. Whenever she thinks about her future, she always imagines herself going to college, having a job, getting married, and raising a family – but in the end, she is never completely happy. She is never happy because she can never stop hating herself. She doesn't know how she will be happy to get married because she has trouble just keeping friends. It's hard to love someone else when she can't even love herself.

Sometimes she tries to think of ways to make everything right, but she can never reach a solution. She was never the smart one of the group. Sure, she was smart, but people didn't go to her for answers on things like this. Izzy couldn't figure it out, Joe couldn't figure it out. If they couldn't do it, there was no way she could figure it out. And every time she can't figure it out, it makes her more depressed. It further confirms that nothing will ever change and that she will never be happy again.

She buries her face in her pillow. It's one of those days again. She can't stop thinking about everything and it's making her feel worthless. Everything good that she ever did for the world was completely worthless. None of it mattered anymore. So what if she helped save the world? It didn't matter because he was gone and she didn't do anything to stop it. She let him go and that was the worst thing she ever could have done.

* * *

The world might as well have ended.

He sits cross-legged on his bed on a Thursday night, not doing his homework but instead looking through the many notebooks that he has filled up with his thoughts and theories. He has completed three full notebooks worth of ideas and he had begun a fourth. Every night, if he had nothing new to contemplate, he would flip through those notebooks and try to delve deeper into old ideas but nothing ever came out of it. Four years with no success.

He would never give up, though. Everyone else had given up but he never would. Everyone else is too busy feeling sorry for themselves and crying over their mistakes but he wouldn't let himself waste any time. It was even more important for him to find a way to make it right because no one else would. He had to make up for ten people's refusal to help.

He rubbed his bloodshot eyes and stood up, stretching his arms and his cramped legs. He had been sitting on his bed, hunched over his notebooks, as it grew ever darker for hours and he only just realized how uncomfortable he was. He turned on his light and it burned his eyes momentarily. He sat down at his computer and set his Digivice next to the blank, blue screen. It never activated or opened a portal, but he always kept the two next to each other, just in case. He could never be certain that it won't open out of the blue.

He yawned, noticing how late it was. He didn't like sleeping, as it wasted time, but he reasoned that he won't be able to get anything done if he's exhausted. Without changing his clothes, he climbs into his bed and shuts off his light. Closing his eyes, he turns over towards his wall and lets his eyes droop.

"I'm going to save you," he whispered into his room, pitch-black except for the light coming from his computer. "I owe it to you. Don't worry, Cody… I'm going to find you."


	5. Chapter 4

**April 21, 2010**

**AN: **I didn't forget about this story! I've just been so busy. Hopefully I'll be able to start updating regularly in the summer. This quarter is my busiest yet. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter and finally getting some answers.

* * *

_The Ultimate Sacrifice_

Chapter 4

_I thought the blinding white light was just a part of the battle ending. That's how it always ends – a flash of light so bright that we would close our eyes and shield them with our hands. And then, just as suddenly, it would end. We would be able to see, with some spots clouding our vision, and it would all be over._

_This time, however, when I opened my eyes, the white light was completely surrounding me. I glanced down and my stomach lurched – there was nothing below me. I tried to walk but my legs took me nowhere. I was floating in a vast entity of nothingness._

"_Guys?"_

_Where was Veemon? And Tai, Izzy, T.K., Kari?_

"_Davis!"_

_I glanced around and saw Joe floating some feet away._

"_Hey!" I waved frantically and tried to thrust my body forward. I made little progress. "Where is everyone?"_

_Joe pointed. "Everywhere."_

_I glanced up and noticed the smattering of bodies floating all around me. Their voices grew louder as I spotted them._

"_Hey guys!" I shouted. "What's going on?"_

"_I don't know, Davis," snapped Matt. "We're just as clueless as you."_

_I scowled. "Alright! Sheesh!"_

_With a lot of slow maneuvering, all twelve of us were able to reach one general area so that we could converse normally. "What now?" asked Kari. "What happened? Did the world end or something?"_

"_I don't know," said Tai. "Where's Agumon?"_

"_And Patamon?"_

"_And Palmon?"_

"_Your digimon have returned to the Digital World," a deep, booming voice that came from nowhere answered. The voice was so deafening that I felt my bones vibrate._

"_Who is that?" cried Tai. "What did you do to our digimon?"_

"_I told you, they are back in the Digital World," it said again._

"_Where is that coming from?" cried Sora._

"_There!" Kari shouted, pointing. We all followed her pointed finger to somewhere above us, where a small, black orbit floated. It looked as if the orbit was a tiny portal to a different world._

"_Who are you?" demanded Matt._

"_I am nothing," it explained. "I am not a living organism."_

"_This is bullshit," Tai snapped. "Just tell us what you want!"_

"_Your destiny has come to a crossroads," it said. "What happens next is in the hands of you twelve chosen children. What you choose will determine how you live the rest of your lives."_

"_Why?" asked Cody_

"_What choices?" Ken inquired._

"_You are being offered an ultimatum," it said. "If you adhere to our desire, the war between good and evil in the Digital and Human Worlds will forever end. Never again will you have to worry about fighting evil and risking your lives. If you don't give us what we want, the war will never end. You will spend the rest of your lives engaged in a battle against evil that you will never win."_

"_Sounds perfect to me," said Sora._

"_What's the catch?" I asked._

"_You must sacrifice Cody Hida."_

_There was a long silence, one of those silences so still that you start to hear it. My ears vibrated with the sound of nothing as everyone stared either at the orbit, Cody, or nothing._

"_What?" Sora said finally._

"_You have ninety minutes to decide," the orbit said. It grew smaller and smaller before vanishing._

_No one said anything for a while. I didn't want to look at Cody, because I knew if I was him I wouldn't want everyone staring at me, but I chanced a tiny glance at him. He was frozen, his face blank and pale. He wasn't looking at anyone._

"_Well, looks like we have ninety minutes to kill," I said, breaking the silence, "because no way are we giving up Cody."_

"_Why would they want him?" Yolei asked. "Why Cody?"_

"_What does them taking Cody have to do with eternal peace between good and evil?" Kari continued._

"_Who cares?" I retorted. "We're not sacrificing him."_

_Everyone lapsed into another silence for a while. I couldn't tell what they were thinking about – they couldn't possibly be considering sacrificing Cody, could they? We've been fighting evil for a long time now; it's not like anything more evil than we've seen before could come at us. Evil always claimed that they were the most "evil being ever" but we always beat them every time. There's no way they were scared of it, were they? Maybe they were just trying to find the connection. Either way, I didn't understand it. I figured we should be coming up a plan of action for when we got out of this place and what kind of evil to expect._

"_Do you guys believe what he said?" asked Izzy. "About how we should be fighting for the rest of our lives with an evil we'll never beat?"_

"_But they always say that," I said. "It hasn't come true yet!"_

"_Davis, you haven't been doing this for that long," Sora said, and her voice sounded tired. "We've been doing this for lot longer than you and it's starting to take its toll."_

_I blinked at her. "Excuse me?" I said. "The first time you guys did this, it lasted a couple months. Then you went on a two and a half year break and we've done most of the fighting this time around!"_

"_Don't talk about things you don't understand," Matt spat at me. "We have done so much more than you could ever imagine, Davis."_

"_Matt," said Tai warningly, before turning to me. "They're both right, Davis. You're not really in a position to talk."_

"_Oh, so you guys will make all the decisions around here?" I shot back. "Yolei, Ken, Cody, and I have no say?" I shook my head furiously. "Wait, what the hell am I even talking about? There's no decision to be made – we're obviously not sacrificing Cody!"_

_There was another stretch of silence and I grew worried that no one was agreeing with me. If these people were going to consider giving up one of our own – I don't know how I'll deal with that. If they do that, then I don't know them at all._

_And then it came._

"_Maybe we don't have a choice."_

_T.K.'s voice reverberated through all of us, even though he said it very quietly. I turned to gape at him, not quite believing my ears. How can we not have a choice? I opened my mouth to say so, but was stalled by Matt saying, "That's what I was thinking."_

_Strengthened by the approval of his older brother, T.K. explained in a louder voice, "If we sacrifice Cody, then we will be able to get out of this weird limbo place and find a way to get him back. We don't know what has changed in our worlds so we can't have any way of knowing what evil we would be up against if we didn't give him up."_

"_If we give up Cody and then rescue him," I replied quickly, hoping to get someone on my side, "then we'll end up having to fight the evil that took him anyway. Why not just skip the process of trying to figure out a way to rescue him and just go right to fighting evil? Besides, what if we can't rescue Cody?"_

"_We've always been able to save each other before," Izzy said. "The chance that we will be able to rescue Cody is very high."_

"_You're going to base your decision on our past experiences?" I exclaimed. _

"_Davis, you have to understand how long 'the rest of your life' really is," Joe said patiently, turning to me. "Being told that we will be fighting until we die is not something that any of us should be excited about."_

"_But neither is letting some unknown ball of blackness take Cody!"_

"_Even though there's the chance that we could save Cody," Tai said._

"_And a chance that this black ball is full of it and that we'll be able to defeat the evil that supposedly will keep us fighting until we die!" I glared around. "What's the matter with you all?"_

"_It would be nice…" said Yolei quietly, not looking at anyone but instead focusing on her feet, "to not have to worry about saving the world or innocent people dying."_

"_At what expense?" I snarled at her, reaching the end of my limit._

_I looked around and saw Kari and Ken staring at me. Their silent looks told me that they too agreed with everyone else. I felt lost. I didn't know what to do. How can I change the minds of ten other people? How do I convince them that they're wrong?_

"_We're all talking about Cody as if he isn't standing right here," said Mimi softly. Instantly, everyone looked down at the boy. Cody, the youngest of us all, the most sensitive. He hadn't moved the entire time; his arms were at his side and his head was down._

"_Cody?" I said. No one else had the guts to say his name._

_He didn't respond for a few moments and we waited with bated breath. If he didn't want to be sacrificed, they couldn't force him – could they?_

"_Okay."_

_His already quiet voice was even lower as he spoke to his feet. At first, I wasn't even sure if he had spoken at all. "What?"_

"_I said… okay." Cody looked up. His face was almost as white as the background around us, his eyes were empty, and his voice and hands shook, but he spoke affirmatively. "I'll do it. I'll give myself up."_

"_Cody, only if you're sure," said Tai, but I could hear the hint of hope in his voice and it disgusted me._

"_No, Cody, I can't let you –" I began. "We don't know –"_

_Cody shook his head. "Davis. I'm going to do it."_

"_We'll save you, Cody," Sora spoke earnestly. "I promise you – we'll come get you."_

_The little boy nodded. Cody suddenly looked five years old._

"_Done already?" The now-familiar voice boomed into the nothingness and reappeared above us. "That was faster than I thought."_

_I felt sick that an evil creature like this was surprised at how fast we came to allow our friend to be given up._

"_Cody? Are you ready?"_

_The boy looked up and nodded. He spread out his arms started to float above us. The black hole grew bigger until it was large enough for him to fit through._

"_We'll come get you, Cody!" Yolei cried._

"_Don't worry, little guy," Tai said. "We'll save you. It won't be long."_

_This isn't right. We're doing the wrong thing, I know it. I clenched my fists – can I still stop it?_

_Right before Cody reached the black hole, he turned back to look at us and made direct eye contact with me. His eyes were filled with tears and through them I could see what he was feeling – terror, sadness, and betrayal._

_And that's when I knew that we had just made the biggest mistakes of our lives._

_I violently tried to run to where Cody was, but I was still floating and thus could not move effectively. "NOOOOOOOO!" I screamed desperately, trying to reach Cody, but before I knew it he was swallowed up by the unforgiving, dark hole and I couldn't see anything. We were all being swallowed by white light – we were going back home._

_Without Cody._

----

Davis woke up early for school on Friday morning. He hated that dream. He hated reliving that moment. He hated how helpless he was against the opinions of ten other people. He hated having to see these people that he thought he knew so well betray him like they did. He hated that look that he saw on Cody's face before they took him – that look has haunted him for four years.

He got out of bed and changed out of his clothes from the day before into a fresh pair. He brushed his teeth and grabbed his backpack and Digivice before leaving his house. No one else was even awake yet.

As he walked with his dream fresh in his mind, he started thinking about that day. He remembered how he woke up on the Odaiba Bridge over the bay with everyone else and how he briefly wondered what had happened. He jumped up as soon as he remembered and glanced around at everyone to confirm that it had actually happened and was not a dream. Cody's absence was immediately noticeable to him.

He had yelled at everyone for how stupid they had been and it had taken the combined efforts of Matt, Joe, Izzy, and T.K. to keep him from attacking Tai. The girls were screaming and everyone yelling at him, but he didn't care. He continued to fight and spit obscenities at Tai. Even though it was everyone's fault, Tai was the leader and Davis decided to focus all of his anger onto one person.

Finally, when he had shouted for so long that his voice was hoarse, he stopped and Tai took the chance to try to calm him down. He had explained that they were going to start finding a way to save Cody. "Calm down, Davis, we'll get him back," he had explained. "We can get back through the portal, it's not that hard. We'll find him. We'll stay in the Digital World until we do."

His words had calmed Davis a bit; at least they were going to try to get him back. After what they had done, he was surprised that they weren't going to just let him rot.

As they walked off the debris and rubble-filled bridge, they came to a crowd of people that had been watching the battle. Civilians, TV reporters, and their families were all crowded around, looking for the group that had disappeared. A cameraman spotted them and the kids had all started running towards their parents.

Davis was fiercely embraced by his parents, as was everyone else by theirs. He couldn't help but feel guilty, though. He was home and Cody was not. He didn't even know where Cody was. Somewhere in the Digital World, he assumed, but where…? What was happening to him?

"We have to go back, though, Mom," he said over his mother's shoulder. "We have to find Cody."

His mom had pulled back and gave him a strange look. "Back? Why? Who's Cody?"

He furrowed his brow. "Cody, Mom. Cody's one of us. They took him and we have to go back."

His parents exchanged worried glances. "Honey, there is no Cody. At least from what you've told us before."

Jun scoffed at him. "He's losing his mind."

Davis gaped at them. "What are you – of course there's a Cody! He has brown hair and he's short and a year younger than me –"

"Davis, you've just been through a traumatic experience," his mom had said gently. "I think once you've slept –"

He had wanted to scream but he didn't have it in him anymore. His energy was completely gone from him; he had been fighting other people and yelling at them for so long already that he didn't have it in him to start fighting with his mom.

Davis reached the beach, his every morning destination. He sat down on the dewy grass, crossing his legs and staring out over the ocean. He turned the Digivice over in his hand and studied it. _Why_ wouldn't it work anymore? _Why_ couldn't he get it to activate?

He sighed as he reached forward, pointing it toward the ocean.

----

_I burst into Izzy's room later in the day, feeling utterly hopeless. "What happened?" I croaked. Everyone else was already there, sitting around somberly. "Cody – he doesn't even exist! My parents said there is no Cody… his mom wasn't there…"_

_Tai shook his head, his face white. "He doesn't," he said quietly. "Kari and I went to the Hida house to talk to his mom and grandfather. I thought that maybe they just didn't really know what was going on… but when they opened the door, his mother had no idea who we were. We told her we had to talk to her about Cody and she asked who he was."_

_Kari frowned. "We said he was her son and she told us we must have the wrong house, because she doesn't have a son."_

"_What happened?" I asked again, weakly. I felt so drained from all the events of the day and, as if losing Cody wasn't enough, we had to deal with the fact that he had seemingly been erased from our world. "How…"_

"_Obviously the black orb must have done something," Izzy said. "It must have messed with our world and wiped away all trace of Cody from our world."_

"_But why would It do that?" Sora asked._

"_Probably to keep anyone from looking for him," Joe said._

"_But we remember," I said. "And we're the only ones that would be able to save him anyway."_

_Tai shrugged. "It doesn't make any sense to me, either."_

"_Well, let's go then," I said, approaching the computer and clutching my Digivice. "Let's go back to the Digiworld and get him."_

_No one said anything for a few seconds; they all looked at each other uncomfortably. _

"_What?" I asked, growing fearful that they weren't going to try to save him anymore._

"_We can't open the portal," Matt said finally._

_I gaped, staring at them all. "What do you mean, you can't open it? We can always open it!"_

"_Well, we can't now," he snapped at me._

_My anger boiled up again. "Hey, don't get mad at me!" I snarled. "I just want to get back to save Cody! Remember how you all decided to give him to a mysterious black orb? Remember how you promised him we would save him? Well, _I _do!"_

"_Look, Davis, we're going to get him back," Tai said. "This is just a setback. We're going to find another way."_

_I relaxed. "Okay. Good."_

----

However, it turned out to not just be a setback. It turned out to be the factor that prevented them from getting back to the Digital World. It was clear that when the black orb took Cody, It conveniently left out the fact that the portal between the real world and the Digital World would be permanently sealed.

He had to hand it to that damn orb. It knew how to get what It wanted.

He clenched his jaw and gripped his Digivice tighter. It became clear after they realized that there was no portal that they had all given up hope. He knew that the reason they stopped trying was because they were so guilty that they wanted to try to pretend it never happened. It wasn't too hard, he supposed, since the world didn't even know that Cody existed. Still, he didn't know how they could do it. Davis felt guilty as hell, even though he was the only one that opposed it, but he didn't wallow in self-pity as a way of coping. Instead, he devoted his life to saving him. When he's eighty years old, he'll know that he spent every ounce of his energy finding Cody and bringing him back. When everyone else is eighty, they'll know that they spent their lives crying for themselves and sitting on their asses while God knows what happened to Cody.

About a week after the end of the Final Battle, they all went to Izzy's one last time. Everyone had been very quiet and didn't seem to be listening to him as he rattled off ideas. Finally, Matt had said quietly, "There's nothing more we can do."

Davis hadn't said anything for a few seconds and then he exploded. "What do you mean, there's nothing more we can do? We've just sat in Izzy's room for a week talking, but we haven't actually done anything! Are you really going to give up so quickly?"

"This is hard on all of us, Davis," said Sora.

At that point, he decided to fuck them all. He didn't want to deal with these awful people anymore. He didn't have any more energy in him to fight with them. If they didn't want to help, they didn't have to. He could do it himself.

He stood up and everyone stared at him. "If you care about Cody and want to help me find him," he said in an icy tone, "then call me." He turned on his heel and stormed out of Izzy's apartment, slamming the door so hard that his ears rang behind him.

None of them ever called him. He never heard a word from any of them. It was hard for him to accept that his friendships with all of them had been a joke. He never really knew any of them, because he never thought that they were capable of doing what they did.

But their betrayal strengthened him. It drove him even more. He would get Cody back and they would all feel like assholes. He was determined. He would get him back.

He just didn't know how.

Sighing again, he stood up. He had been sitting, facing the ocean, for thirty minutes now and he had to get to school. He brushed off his pants and turned around. Glancing up, he stopped in his tracks.

"Kari."


	6. Chapter 5

**June 23, 2011**

**AN: **I know I haven't updated in more than a year, but better late than never… right? I've been focusing on another story, a Harry Potter/Charmed crossover that I've been writing for about three years now (I don't remember how many chapters I have posted, but I'm currently writing chapter 17). I sort of forgot about this story – I've had a pretty eventful year and it is now summer and I'm ready to do more writing. I've had this chapter written for a long time, but I like to be ahead of myself when I write - meaning I like to have more written than posted. I hadn't planned on posting this today but I managed to finish chapter 6, write chapter 7, and start chapter 8 all today, so I figured I might as well be nice since I've been taking so long. I hope people still read this because I'm very proud of it! Enjoy!

* * *

_The Ultimate Sacrifice_

Chapter 5

"Kari."

He didn't say anything for a moment; he couldn't even be sure if it was really her. He just stared at her, mouth slightly open, while she smiled slightly. "Hi, Davis," she said.

He cleared his throat. "Hey, Kari." Silence fell between them and he didn't know what else he had to say to her. Assuming that she didn't really want to talk to him either, he stepped around her and began walking to school.

"I see you here every day."

Davis stopped in his tracks and turned back around slowly, where she was facing him. "Excuse me?"

She nodded. "I walk to school this way, too. I see you every day. I see you hold up your –" She paused briefly and swallowed. "— your Digivice and point it out to the ocean. I know what you're trying to do. You're trying to get to the Dark Ocean, aren't you?"

He stared at her. He hadn't spoken to this girl in nearly four years and now they were talking as if it had happened yesterday. He couldn't believe that she watched him every morning and that she never even tried to talk with him. Anger began to bubble inside him. So she would see him but not feel like it was her responsibility to try to help? "Yes," he said shortly.

She smiled sadly. "I don't know how you do it," she said quietly. "I can barely even think about it without feeling –" She stopped suddenly.

His fury grew. "Well, someone has to do it," he snapped. "Everyone else is too busy feeling depressed and sorry for themselves to do anything. If I tried to leave it up to anyone but myself, then there would be no hope at all."

Kari's face fell as he spoke. She looked down to the ground to break off eye contact with him and, after a moment, spoke again. "We tried, Davis," she said softly. "We tried. We just couldn't do it... just because you are more persistent doesn't mean –"

"You didn't try at all!" he yelled, and she jumped and looked up at him again. "All you did was sit around Izzy's computer for a week and talk about how awful you all felt for letting It take him without even trying to come up with any solutions! So we couldn't get through with computers – so what! Why didn't you think outside the box? The first time the Digidestined went to the Digiworld, they weren't transported through a computer. Why didn't we go to that camp? Why didn't you guys stick with it longer? Why didn't you _try_?"

Kari took a deep breath and said, her voice shaking, "Don't act like you're so much better than us, Davis. You sit here and point your Digivice at an ocean with no results –"

"Don't give me that shit, Kari," he spat, his fury growing with every second he spent looking at her. "I _am_ better than you all. That camp? I went there. I camped out by myself for two weeks to see if there was a portal anywhere. I threw myself off a hill, thinking that it would transport me to the Digiworld. And maybe nothing happens when I come here every day – but at least I'm trying. When's the last time you looked at your Digivice? When's the last time you tried to activate it?" She didn't answer and he grew angrier. "When! Tell me, WHEN?" Her eyes filled with tears. "The week after it happened, right?"

"Stop," she said quietly.

"No, I want you to tell me!" he roared.

Her lower lip quivered. "It was a month after it happened, okay?" she shouted.

Tears were streaming down her cheeks but he felt little sympathy. Once upon a time, he never, ever would have spoken to her like this, but that was years ago. He turned on his heel and stomped off to school, leaving a weeping Kari behind him.

* * *

The last person to yell at her like that was T.K. Afterwards, they never spoke again and shortly thereafter he moved away.

She never thought that T.K. could yell at her like that, but she _really_ never thought that Davis would. It surprised her so much that she didn't move for a few moments. Tears streamed down her face before she wiped them away in annoyance and took a few deep breaths.

She wasn't going to let Davis talk to her like that. He couldn't be mad at her for not being as strong as him.

For that reason, when she returned home from school, she knelt down next to her bed and took five deep breaths. Her hands were shaking. She didn't want to do this – in fact, it was the absolute last thing she wanted to do. However, she couldn't stop replaying her fight with Davis over and over again in her mind. She was determined to prove to him that she could be as strong as him – even though part of her knew that he was right.

She peeked underneath her bed and moved aside stacks of books and old papers until she could see the wall her bed was against – the far wall next to which a tiny, extremely dusty red shoebox sat. That box had not been so much as touched in four years. It had barely even been looked at.

She felt the guilt rising from her lower stomach but she swallowed it back down. The more that she tried to pretend the guilt wasn't there, the more it grew. She continued to push her guilt deeper and deeper inside of her, like a child who crams all his or her toys into a closet to avoid cleaning – inevitably, one day it's all going to burst out in one monstrous explosion.

Taking a deep breath, Kari leaned forward and reached as far as she could until her fingers grazed the dusty roof of the shoebox. Curling her fingers around it, she pulled the box out from underneath her bed. Her hands were covered with dust and there was a handprint on top of the box from where she had grabbed it. The box was a much deeper red than she remembered. All the dust had concealed its color.

She never thought that she would ever open this box again and her fingers and lower lip trembled as she touched the sides. She didn't want to, she really didn't want to – she just hated thinking about what she did. Oh God, did she hate it. She closed her eyes, took another deep, calming breath, and then just opened the box before she could change her mind.

Kari opened her eyes and immediately saw her bright pink Digivice staring back at her. This shoebox had always been her junk box – old friendship bracelets, photographs, and hair ties. Sitting right on top, still looking new as ever, was her Digivice.

She wanted to throw up, but instead she picked it up. It felt cold, which surprised her. She squeezed it in her hands and swallowed. It had been four years since she had held it. Four years since she tried to forget, but never did.

Now that she was holding it, she didn't know what to do. Could she get herself to point it at a computer? They weren't able to get through before, but what if, by some miracle, she could? She was almost too afraid to think about it. She didn't want to think about what would happen if she was able to get through the portal. It would be wonderful – but at the same time, terrifying. What would she do? Would she find Cody? What would she tell him if she did? _Hi, sorry I let a black orb steal you from us and that we all gave up searching for you and that it took me four years to point my stupid Digivice at a portal to come save you. Your existence has been wiped from our planet, but let's go home now!_

Still. While that probably wouldn't go over to well, she thought that she might as well try. She never thought that she would have enough strength to ever look at her Digivice again, and here she was, holding it, and she wasn't sobbing on the floor. Sure, she felt like the shittiest person ever, lower than dirt, but she was holding it. She glanced over at her computer, where the desktop was staring back at her.

She stood up, clutching her Digivice so tightly in her hand that her knuckles turned white, and slowly held it up so that it faced her computer.

Nothing.

She continued pointing it, determined. _I want to get to the Digital World. I want to get through the portal. Please, let me in to save my friend._

Her prayers did nothing. Her desktop remained the same, her Digivice did not light up. It's the same thing that they went through four years ago when they couldn't get through and gave up.

Except for Davis. He didn't give up. He never did.

* * *

She went to her same spot that morning, like she did every morning. She would have gone to his spot, but she feared that if he saw her there he would leave to avoid speaking to her. He hated her like he hated all the others. It stung, but she knew it was deserved.

After thirty minutes, she began to fear that perhaps he wasn't going to come. Maybe he knew that she would come back and his desire to not speak to her was so great that he was going to go somewhere else. Her heart rate quickened and she began to worry.

But he showed up. He was late, but he showed. He jogged over to his usual cliff, facing the ocean, and dropped his backpack and dutifully pointed his Digivice at the ocean. His eyes were closed and he was mumbling softly to himself.

She suddenly became afraid. What if he yelled at her again? What if he yelled so much that she was unable to show him what she brought? Kari has never been that good at standing up for herself during a confrontation, so if he started to yell she may not be able to accomplish what she came here for.

Because of that, she took the Digivice out of her pocket and clutched it in her hand as she approached him. He heard her footsteps and turned around to see her holding it out to him.

"I brought it," she said quickly before he could explode. "I brought it with me. I took it out of the box I had kept it in for four years. I tried to open the portal but it didn't work."

Davis stared at her for a long time. His eyes darted back and forth between her face and her hands. She didn't know what he was thinking – would he say that that wasn't enough? Or would he be proud and welcome her to help him?

Finally, he just nodded. "Okay." He turned back toward the ocean and held out his own Digivice.

"That's it?"

He glanced back at her; they were both surprised at her words. "What do you mean?"

She wasn't exactly sure. She swallowed and said, "Are you going to ask me to help you?"

He half-shrugged. "You can help if you want. I shouldn't have to ask you. I just don't think you will."

Anger boiled inside of her like guilt had the day before. "What do you mean by that? You don't think I will?"

He sighed irritably and finally turned his entire body to face hers. "No, I don't think you will. Why? Because it's been four fucking years. Did you expect me to rejoice because you finally picked up your Digivice after all this time? Well, congratulations, but I'm not really impressed."

"If I pointed my Digivice at an ocean for an hour every day, _then_ would you accept me?" she snapped.

He stared at her. "If you pointed your Digivice at the ocean for an hour every single day for four years, then maybe."

She was fed up – Kari turned on her heel and stomped away. If she couldn't please Davis, she would do it all on her own.

* * *

He didn't understand what was up with Kari. One day, out of the blue, she brings her Digivice and expects him to welcome her back with open arms? Was she sleeping these last four years? Maybe if she'd done this the day after the final time he left Izzy's house, not waited four years.

He started walking to school a few minutes after Kari and lapsed deep into thought. Clearly, trying to get through a portal via the ocean was not working. Where else could he find a portal? He felt himself begin to panic. He was running out of ideas. He couldn't get in through the computer, the ocean, the camp where the Originals got through. What was he going to do?

Because he wasn't paying attention, he walked right into someone. He hit them with enough force to send himself flying backwards, onto the ground.

"Sorry, sorry," mumbled Davis as he scrambled to get up. "I wasn't looking –" He stopped as he finally looked at who he ran into.

Tai was standing in front of him, having not fallen down when they made impact. He was staring at Davis with a completely blank expression on his face. Davis opened his mouth to issue another apology, but decided against it. Instead, he brushed past Tai and continued his walk to school.

"You think you're better than us?" Tai called after him.

"No," Davis called over his shoulder, not stopping. "I know I am."

He knew instantly what effect his words were going to have upon Tai. He heard the scuffling of feet and then Tai had a hold of him. He was gripping Davis by the collar of his shirt, glaring at him like a madman.

"Are you going to hit me?" Davis asked, eerily calm, before Tai could spit any threats at him. "Go ahead, hit me. Hit me because I'm the only one that had enough balls to continue looking for Cody while you were too afraid. That's a great reason to beat me up – so, go on, do it."

Tai stared at him for a long time, their faces inches apart. Davis knew that he had gotten to him – he was always able to. They were all the same.

Instead of punching him, Tai violently threw him to the ground. By the time Davis had stood up again, Tai was gone.

* * *

It was a rather warm day – not warm enough to take off his coat, but it was warm compared to most winter days in Odaiba. He was not used to it – he had never, ever seen it this warm before in the dead of winter.

Because of this, Ken Ichijouji decided to eat outside.

He ate alone, as usual.

However, on this already unusual day, his alone time ended after about five minutes when a girl timidly approached him. He didn't notice she was there until her shadow was cast upon him. He looked up and squinted; her face was in front of the sun and he couldn't make it out. "Hello?"

"Hey, Ken." He knew that voice immediately. His eyebrows shot up as Kari Kamiya sat down next to him, gracing him with a half-smile. "How are you? It's been a while."

He gaped for a few seconds. "Uh – yeah, it has been. I'm okay. How are you?"

She shrugged. "I've been better."

Neither of them spoke for about a minute. He glanced at her, but she was staring out into space. He cleared his throat to get her attention and said, "So, not that I'm not happy to see you, Kari, but I haven't seen you in years and I must admit that your presence right now is very strange. Is there a reason you are here, other than to say hello?"

At first, he didn't think she even heard him. Her eyes were glassy and she didn't move or make any other indication that his words had registered in her mind. Just as he was about to ask her again, she said, "Ken. You've been to the Dark Ocean before, right?"

Out of all the things he thought she was going to say, that was not anywhere on the list. "Excuse me?"

"You went there, right?" she asked, finally looking at him. "I remember you telling me about it."

He nodded slowly. "Yes, I have. It's where I went when my Digivice turned black. Why are you asking this, Kari? Haven't you been there, too?"

"Yes," she said. "I have. I was just wondering, though. When you went there, how did you get there?"

"My Digivice," Ken replied. "I just pointed it at my brother's computer and it took me there. How did you get there?"

She paused for a few seconds. "I don't know," she said finally. "When I went there, I was just taken there. I didn't have to use my Digivice."

"Oh." he said, confused. "That's strange."

Kari nodded. "Yes, it is." She glanced at him again. "Do you think that since I've been there before, I can use my Digivice to take me back?"

He frowned deeply at her. "I don't know. Maybe. But why would you want to go back?"

She shrugged. "Hypothetically."

He didn't believe her for one second but he wasn't going to press that matter. A few seconds later she stood up and brushed off her jeans. "Well, thanks, Ken. It was nice seeing you. Bye." She was gone before he even had a chance to respond.

* * *

Davis figured that Kari wouldn't be foolish to come to his spot for the third morning in a row, so he relaxed a bit as he pointed his Digivice toward the ocean. He tried to keep himself to thinking about what his next step was. If he gave up on the ocean, what was his next plan?

"Hi, Davis."

He looked up and saw Kari, again, staring at him. He rolled his eyes and turned back to face the ocean, not responding.

"I think I have an idea."

He didn't answer. She ignored his silence and sat down directly next to him. Her shaking fingers were twirling her Digivice.

"I talked to Ken yesterday," she said.

That shocked him. He turned and looked at her, but still said nothing. He knew she wanted him to ask what they spoke about, but he didn't feel like appeasing her. Besides, what the hell did he care what two traitors had to say?

"I asked him how he got to the Dark Ocean. Did you know that he used his Digivice? He just pointed it to a computer and was able to get in."

"I've pointed my Digivice to computers more times than you could imagine," he said finally. "So that doesn't really help me."

Kari nodded. "I tried to get in through a computer, too." She turned to glance at him, but he determinedly did not look at her. "It's not the same, getting from here to the Digital World and here to the Dark Ocean. I've never been able to discover what works and what doesn't. When I went to the Dark Ocean, I was just taken there. I was taken from here." She paused for a second, perhaps thinking to herself. "The portal from here to the Digital World is closed; I think we both know that by now. But what if… what if the portal to the Dark Ocean isn't?"

Finally, Davis turned to stare at her. "What are you talking about?"

"It's worth a shot," she said, and he wasn't sure if she was talking to him or herself. "It's our only hope. The black orb that spoke to us knew that it would be closing the portal from here to the Digital World – It knew we couldn't get back. But I doubt It thought about the Dark Ocean… only Ken and I have been there, after all."

"But how will we get there?" Davis asked.

She stood up and slung her backpack over her shoulder. "I'm going to try." She looked down at him and jerked her head, indicating him to stand as well. "Hold on to me," she said as he obliged. "If this works, you'll need to be touching me."

His heart pulsed violently in his throat. Kari wasn't making total sense but she had a lead that he had not considered. She may not have been the greatest person over the last few years, but he was in no position to be picky about what he tried.

Kari held her Digivice tightly in her hand, staring at it. Davis watched her as she shut her eyes, tightly, concentrating hard. When she opened them again, her eyes shone – they were wet. She looked out over the ocean and, taking one final gasp of air, pointed it out at the ocean.

Immediately, Davis knew that it had worked. The wind picked up and Kari's entire body began to vibrate because of her Digivice. It had lit up for the first time in four years.

A beam of fluorescent light suddenly shot out of her Digivce and into the sky. A portal exploded from the end of the light, a portal made up of light green, yellow, pink, powder blue, and white light.

Kari began to vibrate more violently and Davis held on tighter. Their eyes were both wide, staring at the portal above them. Davis was in shock – he didn't know what to feel. He had been waiting for a breakthrough for years and now that he had experienced one he didn't know what to do with himself.

They began to be pulled by way of Kari's Digivice toward the portal. Soon they were floating through the air towards it. Davis looked over his shoulder and saw the town of Odaiba fading rapidly. He glanced back in front of him and found himself being swallowed by the portal. He was surrounded by colors – he was blinded, all he could feel was Kari's arm gripped in his hand.

As soon as it started, it ended. Davis and Kari were dropped from the air onto the ground, rather roughly. Davis coughed a few times, gasping for breath as the wind had been knocked out of him. Slowly he clambered to his feet, bending down and helping Kari up as well.

He looked around once they had regained composure. They were at the beach, but it was different. After that explosion of color from the portal, there was no color in this place – the water, the sky, the sand that they were standing on – they were all shades of gray.

"This is it." Kari turned to me.

"What now?"


	7. Chapter 6

**June 27, 2011**

**AN:** Quick update to make up for waiting over a year last time! I'm on a roll with this story – just finished writing chapter 9. Woo!

* * *

_The Ultimate Sacrifice_

Chapter 6

Odaiba had been experiencing incredibly strange weather over the last week. It started off rather warm, especially for winter, but then quickly went to gloomy – not exactly a wintery cold, but an ugly, sad, gloomy cold. It was constantly foggy and cloudy. The weather reporters on every news station in Odaiba were all extremely confused by it and would continually promise to have clear skies the following day – however, it had yet to happen.

After school on the Friday following Kari's visit, Ken was at home, eating a snack in his living room while watching television. Most kids his age went out to lunch or to the movies with their friends on Fridays to celebrate the weekend, but Ken didn't have any friends to go out with. He didn't mind much, though. After all, it wasn't just friends he wanted – it was certain friends he wanted back.

As he flipped through the stations, he stopped on the local news channel, which had just begun airing the five o' clock news segment. He figured all they would talk about was the strange weather, but the intro to the headlining story caught his attention.

"Yesterday evening, formal missing persons reports were filed for two Odaiba teenagers, Davis Motomiya and Kari Kamiya," the female news anchor said, as school photos of both Davis and Kari appeared behind her. "The two teens have been missing since Wednesday morning. Families said they left their homes in the early hours of the morning to walk to school; however, neither teen showed up for any of their classes that day or have been seen since. The two are reported as having been friends for years and are suspected to be together. Family members do not believe that any foul play has been committed, theorizing that the kids likely ran away. You may recognize these kids as having been involved in the terrorist attack in Odaiba four years ago. According to Akiko Kamiya, Kari's mother, her children spiraled into a depression following those events and haven't been the same since. She believes her daughter has run away to, and we quote, 'escape it all.' However, she is begging her daughter to return, as is the Motomiya family of Davis."

Throughout the news report, Ken had slowly stopped eating his food and set the plate down next to him. His eyes were wide, his mouth an O-shape, and his heart racing. For a second, he almost enjoyed seeing this report, because it reminded him of the old days. But then he pushed the thought from his mind. Davis and Kari's disappearance could have absolutely nothing to do with the Digital World.

And then he remembered. It hit him like a car hitting a brick wall: his and Kari's conversation about her using her Digivice to get to the Dark Ocean.

He jumped up, his adrenaline pumping. He had to tell someone. But – who?

Obviously, calling Tai would be the best option. He tore into his room and opened his phonebook, praying to the high heavens that the Kamiyas still had the same phone number. He was nervous to be calling Tai, as the two of them were never exactly close, but he knew he needed to do it. He dialed with shaking fingers and held the phone up to his ear, his heart pounding in his throat.

Tai's mother answered after the first ring. "Hello?" she said in a rush.

_She thinks it is Kari._ Ken swallowed. "Hello, Mrs. Kamiya. Is Tai there? I'm a friend from school."

He heard her exhale. "Yes," she said, disappointment coating her tone. "Hold on a second."

Ken heard her call for her son and a moment later, his familiar voice answered. "Hello?"

"Tai? Hi... it's Ken Ichijouji." He waited for Tai to say something, but he didn't. "I don't know if you remember me –"

"I remember you," said Tai shortly, and Ken was taken aback by his tone. "What do you want?"

"I saw the report about Kari," he said, suddenly regretting his decision to call. He cleared his throat and continued, "I'm sorry. But I need to tell you something. I think that her disappearance... well, I think it might be related to the Digital World."

Tai didn't say anything and after about a full minute Ken thought that he had lost the connection. "Are you there?"

"Don't ever call here again," Tai said menacingly and Ken flinched. "I don't want you to come near me and my family, ever." Ken heard him slam down the phone and then the dial tone.

He slowly set down his phone, frowning deeply. Now what? If Tai wouldn't listen to him, then who else could he call? Davis and Tai had always been the two leaders.

He thought of who he would consider one peg down from them when it came to leadership. Probably... Matt and Izzy. They had always been good at taking charge.

His heart leapt in fear, though. What if they didn't believe him either? What if he talked to every single Digidestined and not one of them believed him or wanted to listen to him? What would he do then?

Ken took a deep breath to calm himself down and clear his mind. "I'll worry about that later," he mumbled to himself. For now, he needed to focus on contacting the others and trying to get their support.

He decided that Matt would be a good candidate to start with. He said a quick prayer that Matt would listen to him to the heavens even higher than the aforementioned high heavens before dialing the number he had for Matt in his phone book.

Matt answered after the sixth ring, just as Ken was about to hang up. "Hello?" he said groggily, sounding as if he had just woken up.

"Hello. Is this Matt?"

"Who wants to know?"

"Hi. Um, this is Ken Ichijouji. I don't know if you remember me—"

"Hey Ken. Of course I remember you. What's going on?"

Ken relaxed; his tone was much more casual than Tai's had been. "Oh, good. Well, I wanted to talk to you about something. Did you hear that Kari and Davis are missing?"

Matt exhaled deeply. "Yeah, I heard about that. Sad stuff."

"I think I know where they are," Ken said in a rush. "Please don't hang up on me," he added.

"Wait, you do? And why would I hang up on you?"

"'Cause Tai did when I told him that I think it's related to the Digital World."

Matt didn't say anything for a moment, just as with Tai. "Ken..." he began, his voice tired.

"You have to hear me out," Ken said. "I have good reasons to believe so."

Sighing, Matt said, "Fine. But I don't think this is a conversation to have other the phone. Can you come over to my place?"

He didn't really want to, because it was across town, but he didn't have much of a choice. He scribbled down Matt's address and hung up. He put on his shoes and coat, wrote a quick note for his mother to read when she got back from the market explaining his whereabouts, and departed.

* * *

Ken rang the doorbell three times before Matt finally came to the door. He was surprised by the older boy's appearance; his hair was a mess, he was dressed in a pair of very ripped jeans and an extremely faded black T-shirt emblazoned with his old band's logo, and his face was pale. "Hey there," he said, smiling, and Ken noticed his eyes were bloodshot. "Come on in. Sorry it's a mess..."

Mess was an understatement. There were dirty dishes and old pizza boxes, food cartons, and bags littered all over the living room, with flies buzzing around some of them. It was dusty and dirty - surely no one had vacuumed in weeks, maybe months. In the kitchen, the sink was filled with filthy plates, bowls, and cups, and on the stove were pots with what looked like ancient food still sitting in them. In the corner of the living room was a piece of food that had been there so long it was nearly covered in mold. Ken wrinkled his nose in disgust but said nothing.

"This'a way." Matt led him through the hallway into his room. The first thing Ken noticed was that the shades were drawn so that it was fairly dark inside and the second thing was that it smelled very strongly of marijuana. Matt sat down on his bed, which was actually just a mattress on the floor, and reached for a hand-rolled blunt that was smoking on an ashtray next to his bed. He brought it to his lips and inhaled deeply. "Want some?" he asked, keeping the smoke in his lungs.

Ken shook his head. "Um, no thank you." He glanced around for a place to sit. The room had clothes and papers littering the entire floor; Ken couldn't even tell what color the carpet was. There was a red bean bag chair in the corner of the room, albeit filled with what Ken assumed was dirty laundry. He approached cautiously. "Can I move these clothes?"

Exhaling finally, Matt said, "Yeah, go ahead."

Ken very cautiously picked up the ball of clothing, as if afraid something would jump out of it, and dumped it onto the floor. He sat down in the bean bag chair and instantly sank. He fidgeted and adjusted himself for about thirty seconds until he was sitting up straight enough for comfort.

"So, Ken," began Matt. "What makes you think that Kari and Davis are in the Digiworld?"

"I don't think they're in the Digital World," Ken corrected him. "I think they're in the Dark Ocean."

Matt frowned. "The Dark Ocean? That sounds familiar."

"Kari and I have both been there before," he explained. "Kari was transported there once, back when I was the Digimon Emperor."

Snapping his fingers in realization, Matt exclaimed, "I remember that! But why would they be there? How did they get there? And how do you know?"

"I don't know why," said Ken, "but a couple days ago Kari came to my school and asked me about the Dark Ocean and how I got there when I went. I told her I used my Digivice. She wanted to know if she could get to the Dark Ocean using her Digivice since she had been there before and I told her I wasn't sure. I asked her why she would want to go back and she said she was asking a hypothetical question."

"Hm," was all Matt said.

Ken waited for him to say more, but he didn't. "Well, what do you think?"

Matt just shrugged, which slightly annoyed Ken.

"I think they're in the Dark Ocean," he said again. "I don't know why they would go there, because Cody was taken to the Digiworld, but –"

"Don't say that name," Matt said warningly.

Ken stopped and frowned. "Why not?"

"Just, don't," he said.

"But Matt... I think that's why they went," Ken persisted. "I really do. Why else –"

"I don't care," Matt growled.

Ken had always been more passive than anything, but he felt himself needing to stand up to Matt in this instance. "Are you really going to sit here and do nothing when Kari and Davis might be on to something? What if they find Cody but need all of us?"

"I said, enough!" he roared, standing up.

Ken stood up as well and held his ground. He wasn't going to let this one go. "You're being a baby!" he snapped. "Everyone feels guilty, we all do! I was there, too, remember? But you can't let your guilt overcome you and prevent you from setting things right!"

"You have no idea what the fuck you're talking about!" Matt shouted. Instead of cowering, his words only made Ken angrier.

"I don't?" he challenged. "What about this experience is worse for you than it was for me? If anything, it's worse for me because _I _knew Cody better than you did!"

Ken felt triumphant when it took Matt longer to reply. He was winning this argument. "It's too late," he spat.

"It's never too late," Ken said in a low voice. Before Matt could attempt to counter that, he turned on his heel and stomped out of Matt's filthy apartment, slamming the door behind him.

* * *

Ken thought of where to go next. He had been rebuffed by both Tai and Matt, the two guys that were most like leaders. He wanted to try Izzy next, although he was slightly afraid that Izzy would reject him too. But he had to go. Ken owed it to Cody to go. He had to do everything he could. If none of the other Digidestined would listen to him, he would just figure it out himself.

He had been to Izzy's place before so he decided that since he was on this side of town already, it would be faster to just go to his house instead of going back his own house and looking up Izzy's number to call. He just hoped that he was home.

Upon arriving at Izzy's apartment, Ken took a deep breath before knocking three, solid times. A woman that Ken recognized as Izzy's mother answered the door. "How can I help you?" she asked kindly, clearly not remembering him.

"Hi, Mrs. Izzumi. I'm a friend of Izzy's from school. Is he home?"

"Why, yes he is," she said. "Come on in, I'll show you to his room."

He stepped inside and shut the door behind him, following Izzy's mother down the hall to her son's room. She knocked on the door twice and called through it, "Izzy? Someone's here to see you. What's your name, hon?" she asked of Ken.

He cleared his throat. "Um, Ken."

"It's Ken from school."

As soon as Izzy heard his name, Ken could hear him scrambling around. The door flew open and an older, more mature Izzy than Ken remembered stood in the threshold. "Ken!"

"I'll leave you two," said Izzy's mother cheerfully and departed down the hall, toward the kitchen.

"Hi, Izzy," Ken greeted. "How have you been?"

He shrugged. "I've been better. What are you – well, why don't you come in first?" He stepped aside so that Ken could enter and then shut the door behind him. His room was much cleaner than Matt's, which made Ken feel more comfortable. He sat down on Izzy's bed while the older boy took his spot at his desk. "So, now I ask of you – what are you doing here?"

Ken had to think carefully on how to phrase everything to Izzy so that he would believe him. Perhaps third time's the charm. "I don't really know how to say this… well, I guess I should start with Kari and Davis. I'm sure you've heard?"

Izzy nodded slowly. "Yes, I have. It's very strange."

Ken's heart jumped. "Strange how?"

"Strange that the two of them are both missing and went missing at the same time," he said thoughtfully. "You agree with me, right? That's why you're here, isn't it?"

"Yes, exactly!" cried Ken. "I think I know where they are."

Izzy sat up straight. "Where?"

Ken paused. "Will you kick me out if it has to do with the Digital World?"

"Of course not," said Izzy, leaning forward with an insatiable desire to hear more.

Ken proceeded to tell Izzy the same story he had told Matt, about Kari asking him about the Dark Ocean. Izzy scratched his chin thoughtfully throughout the whole story and, once Ken had finished, asked, "But why would they want to go to the Dark Ocean?"

"That's what I thought," said Ken. "If I'm correct in what they were trying to achieve, I would think they would try to go to the Digital World, not the Dark Ocean."

"And what do you think they were trying to achieve?" asked Izzy.

Ken hesitated. "To find Cody."

Nodding, Izzy said, "Precisely what I was thinking."

Ken breathed a sigh of relief at Izzy's acceptance. Finally, he wasn't alone. "I tried to tell Tai where Kari was, but he hung up on me. Matt didn't believe me – he said it was too late."

"Matt and Tai both tend to take full responsibility of everything that happens to them," Izzy said. "I think they may have taken what happened to Cody a lot harder than the rest of us, solely because they feel like leaders and they are, in a sense, their own worst enemies. I'm sure that they'll come around if they have to, with time."

"I hope so," said Ken. "And I hope it is sooner rather than later, because I think I can take us to the Dark Ocean."

Izzy narrowed his eyes at Ken. "How?"

"With my Digivice," he explained. "It took me there before, and clearly Kari was able to use hers to get her there. She must have been able to take Davis, so I would be able to take others, too."

"But where is the portal?" asked Izzy curiously.

Ken frowned. "I don't know. Last time I went, I went through my computer, but I have pointed my Digivice at my computer countless times and never opened any portal."

"As have I..." mumbled Izzy. "Well, maybe when we have everyone else here, we'll think of something. The only thing..."

"What?"

"Why the Dark Ocean?" he mused. "Why there? It's just another plane, a completely separate one from this world and the Digital World. Why would they go there?"

Ken shrugged. "I don't know..."

They spent a few moments pondering in silence, Ken searching the very reaches of his brain to try and figure out where the portal to the Dark Ocean would be and why Kari and Davis would choose to go there. Maybe they got through with a computer? But how? What did they do to get them through?

"Unless..."

Ken's head snapped up. "Unless what?"

"We pretty much all but know for a fact that the portal between this world and the Digital World has been permanently sealed," Izzy explained. "But that doesn't mean that the portal between the Digital World and the Dark Ocean has been closed."

Realization festered within Ken's brain. "So... you're saying –"

"That if we can get to the Dark Ocean," Izzy began, excitement growing in his voice, "then maybe we can get to the Digital World through there!"

Izzy and Ken were silent for a long time. They had just reached a magnificent breakthrough.

"What do we do now?" Ken asked. "Go to them?"

Izzy was thoughtful. "Well," he said finally, "We should let the others know that we've found out."

Ken nodded. "I already tried to tell Matt and Tai, though."

"If we can get the others to go with us," said Izzy, "then I'm sure Matt and Tai will come around." He checked his clock. "It's six-thirty. Let's get started… we've wasted enough time already."

Izzy pulled out his phone and began calling. Unfortunately, all of the calls went to voicemail. "Hey Sora, it's Izzy," he said. "I'm with Ken right now and we just figured something out about…" he hesitated, "Cody. It also involves Kari and Davis, whom I'm sure you've heard have gone missing. Please, please call me back as soon as you can." Ken listened to him repeat these messages for Mimi, Joe, Yolei, and T.K.

"Do you think they'll call you back?" Ken asked, feeling worried that Izzy hadn't been able to get in touch with any of them.

"I sure hope so," he said gravely. "I know that everyone feels guilty about what happened four years ago, but I hope that doesn't hinder them from doing anything about it now."

Ken frowned. "It stopped Matt. He said it was too late."

"We'll deal with them later," Izzy said. "Like I said, we'll get through to the others and then work on those two."

Izzy and Ken talked for another fifteen minutes, reeling from finally making a discovery. Even though they hadn't exactly done anything yet, they were closer than ever to saving Cody, and for the first time in four long years their lives actually seemed to be taking a positive turn.

"Well, I'd better get going," Ken said, standing up at last. "My mother will want me home for dinner."

Izzy nodded and stood up as well, holding out his hand to shake. "Thanks for coming to me, Ken," he said. "We're going to save Cody."

Ken wasn't sure if Izzy was saying that to reassure himself or Ken, but he appreciated it nonetheless. He nodded before leaving Izzy's apartment.

Izzy couldn't concentrate on homework; he was still feeling a rush of adrenaline at the breakthrough he and Ken had reached. He opened up a blank document on his desktop and began typing, listing out ideas and theories he had on what to do next. He and Ken would have to recruit as many Digidestined as they could – as much as he hated to admit it, he felt as through their group had separated so much that they might not all return. He was hopeful that they all would, but at this point there were no guarantees.

He was just thinking that he wanted someone to call him back when his phone rang. He snatched up and answered mid-first ring. "Hello?"

"Izzy?" came a soft voice on the other end.

"Mimi," Izzy said in relief. "It's so good to hear from you." He checked his watch. "What time is there? Aren't we sixteen hours ahead of you?"

"Yeah," she said. "It's two in the morning. I… couldn't sleep, though. When you called, I thought I was dreaming or something."

"I know we haven't kept in touch over the years," Izzy said. "I'm sorry. You got my message, though, right?"

She paused. "Yes."

"You probably hadn't heard, but Kari and Davis went missing, and I'm ninety-five percent positive they're in the Dark Ocean," he explained to her. "Ken and I are going to go after them. We want to get everyone together again."

Mimi didn't speak for a moment. "Izzy… I'm on the other side of the world."

"I know, but –"

"Why did you all stop calling me?" she said, and there was something strange about her voice. "I thought – I still wanted us to be friends. We all went through it together, so why did no one want to keep in touch? Or was it just me? Do you guys all hang out without me?"

"Mimi, of course not," Izzy said quietly. "None of us… we all just –"

He then realized why her voice sounded so strange; she was crying. "I had to go through this all alone, so far away from you all, and it was so hard. I just don't know why you all abandoned each other. Did you guys even think how hard this was on everyone else? But no, no one thinks about each other anymore. After Cody, everyone became so self-involved."

Izzy was frowning deeply and felt sick. He knew she was right; he assumed everyone felt the same way – guilty and wanting to escape the memories. He hadn't considered the alternative: the ones that wanted to heal together. "Mimi…" he tried, but he had no words. "I'm… I'm so sorry."

But she was crying too hard by this point and a moment later hung up. Izzy held the phone out and stared at it, swallowing thickly. He knew this was going to be hard, but he hadn't expected it to hurt so badly.

About thirty minutes later, his phone rang again. It was Sora.

"Izzy," she said warmly in greeting. "It's great to hear from you, although under the circumstances…"

"I know," he said. "You got my message?"

She sighed. "Yes, I did. What did you guys figure out?"

Izzy repeated to her what he and Ken had discovered together, and Sora was silent for a moment.

"Wow. You guys really are on to something," she said. "Are you gonna go to the Dark Ocean, too?"

"That's the plan," said Izzy. "We were hoping to get everyone else to go, too."

Again, Sora hesitated. "Well… count me in."

"Really?" said Izzy in surprise. "You'll come with us?"

"Of course," said Sora. "I am so consumed with guilt over what happened and I know I'll never forgive myself for what happened, but… that doesn't mean I can't help try to fix it, right?" She sounded like she was trying to convince herself instead of Izzy.

"Will you come over tomorrow?" Izzy asked. "Around noon?"

"I'll be there."

"You remember where I live?"

Izzy could almost hear her smiling on the other line. "Of course, Izzy. I'll see you tomorrow."


	8. Chapter 7

**July 11****, 2011**

**AN:** Thanks always and forever for your reviews. I'm glad you are enjoying this story and hope I don't let you down in the future. This may be the last update for a while (but not for a year, I promise… probably just a few weeks). I'm still working on chapter 10 and have some executive decisions to make regarding the direction of the story so I'm going to slow myself down a bit before I update again. But I hope you like this!

* * *

_The Ultimate Sacrifice_

Chapter 7

The following day, T.K. found himself taking a train to Odaiba. He hadn't been back since he moved away all those years ago and he felt nervous doing so. He'd been so good at burying all those memories that he was afraid they'd all come back up returning to the site of it all.

He was surprised when he'd received Izzy's message; partially because he didn't think he would hear from any of the Digidestined again, but even more so because he hadn't heard that Kari was missing. He was essentially cut off from everyone in Odaiba and he didn't exactly watch the news. It had shocked him more than Izzy's phone call had.

He'd stayed up almost all night, as he usually did, thinking about what to do. Going back to Odaiba meant he would have to own up to what he'd done in the past, and he knew how badly that would hurt. But, at the same time, if he didn't go… he would be doing to Kari and Davis what he'd done to Cody; turning the other cheek and trying to pretend like it didn't happen.

T.K. swallowed painfully. If living with what he did to Cody was hard, doing the same thing to Kari would be unbearable.

It was that reasoning alone that got him on the train that morning to go into Odaiba. T.K. had lied to his mother and said he was going to visit Matt – it was the only excuse he could give that she wouldn't question. In fact, it overjoyed her.

T.K. walked robotically from the station to Izzy's house; even though it had been four years, he still knew exactly where it was. He knocked three times when he reached the door and Izzy's mother answered.

"Hello!" she said brightly. "You must be here for the group project as well!"

"Oh, um… yes," he said. She must not remember him.

"Izzy's room is right down the hallway," she said, stepping back for him to enter. He walked down the familiar hallway and opened Izzy's closed bedroom door.

When he arrived, he was surprised to see only Izzy, Ken, and Sora there. "Where's everyone else?" asked T.K. He assumed everyone would already be there; his train had arrived late.

"This is it," Izzy said. "Sora's the only one who told me she was coming. I didn't know you would be."

"Sorry," T.K. said sheepishly. "I didn't really decide until this morning."

"I called Yolei again today," said Izzy. "She hung up on me. Joe said he would think about it, but he's far away. Mimi…" he hesitated. "She's too far also. Ken spoke to Matt and Tai yesterday but they didn't want to hear it." He was frowning.

"Does anyone have a plan?"

Izzy broke out into what he and Ken had discovered and what the three of them had decided to do as a course of action before he'd arrived. Sora finished with, "Ken is going to take us to the Dark Ocean tomorrow. Today we're going to try to get the others to agree to go. But if we can't get everyone… we'll have to go without them."

Tomorrow. The Dark Ocean. T.K. nodded, his heart pounding. It was going to be so hard to go back, he knew, but he had to do it. It wouldn't make up for what they'd done four years ago, but it would be a step in the right direction. No way was he going to sit back when there was a plan to rescue Kari and Davis.

"Let's go get the others, then," T.K. said.

"We were thinking you would go to Matt," Izzy said. "Sora will talk to Tai and Ken will talk to Yolei. I'm going to call Joe and Mimi again and see if I can talk to them. We'll meet back here?"

The three of them nodded. "Let's do it."

* * *

It was hard to believe that once Sora and Tai had been such good friends. They'd never gone so much as a week without talking, so it would be strange going back after four years. Tai arguably took everything the hardest – he was a leader that felt like he failed. Naturally he would take all responsibility. She knew that he was strong enough to get through this; he just needed someone to believe in him.

It hurt how familiar everything about Tai's building was; the elevators, the hallways, his front door. She hesitated before she knocked.

His mother answered the door; she looked distressed and Sora suddenly remembered how Kari was missing.

"Sora," she breathed, staring at her.

"Hi, Mrs. Kamiya," Sora said. "I… I'm so sorry about Kari."

She blinked away tears. "Thank you. It's nice to see you. It's been a long time."

"Too long," Sora said truthfully. "Is… is Tai here?"

"Yes, he's in his room," she said, stepping back for me to step inside. "You remember where it is?"

"Of course." Sora walked past Tai's mother without looking at her; she wanted to get away from her. It broke her heart too much. She walked to Tai's bedroom door and knocked.

"I'm busy, Mom," Tai's voice floated through. It was so familiar.

"Tai, it's Sora," she said. "Can I come in?"

There was a moment's silence before the door swung open. Tai stood in the doorway, his hair messier than ever and dressed in sweats. It looked as though he just got out of bed.

"What are you doing here?" he said, in a harsher tone than she'd remembered.

"Can I please come in?" Sora repeated.

Tai looked at her for a moment before stepping back to let her enter. He then shut the door behind her.

She didn't even have time to speak before he said, "I hope you're not here to talk about what Ken called me about yesterday."

"Well…" said Sora. "Actually, that's exactly why I'm here."

"Then you can forget about it."

"You didn't even let Ken explain anything to you," Sora protested.

"I heard him say 'Digiworld' and 'Kari' in the same sentence," he snarled. When did he become so hostile? With a pang, she realized they'd missed a huge chunk of each others' lives.

"Kari's not in the Digiworld," she said.

Tai narrowed his eyes. "I know," he said. "She ran away. She's been depressed for a while."

Sora shook her head. "She's in the Dark Ocean with Davis."

That stunned him. He blinked at her a couple times before sputtering, "But – why would she be there?"

"She and Davis figured it out before anyone else," said Sora.

"Figured what out?"

"That the portal from this world to the Digiworld may be closed, but the portal from the Dark Ocean to the Digiworld might not be," she said. "She talked to Ken about it before she disappeared. He's certain that's where she is and that he can take us there." She searched his face for any clue of what he was thinking, but she couldn't tell. "We're going tomorrow."

After a few seconds, he shrugged nonchalantly. "You're wasting your time."

Sora scowled at him. "What's wrong with you?"

"Sora, we already fucked up," he spat.

"And?" she said loudly. "You're gonna sit back and let it happened again?" He was clearly taken aback by her tone, so surprised that he said nothing. "Tai, this is your sister! Are you going to sit back and do nothing? Yes, we fucked up already – and you need to stop thinking that it's all your fault!"

Tai frowned, for once not retaliating. He stared at her before saying, "I'm the leader. I was the one that people looked to for answers and I made the wrong choice."

"It wasn't just you," Sora said. "We all made the wrong choice."

"I should've agreed with Davis!" he suddenly shouted at her. "I shouldn't have gone against him! How can anyone ever take me seriously again? How can any of them trust my decision-making? Mistakes are one thing, but this wasn't just a mistake – this was so much more than that. I can't ever forgive myself for it so how can I expect anyone else to!"

Sora stood up so fast that the chair she was sitting on fell backwards with a crash and Tai jumped. "You don't think I hate myself for this, Tai?" she yelled back. "Every single day I hate myself. But this is our chance to try to make it right! You need to stop thinking so highly of ourselves – _no one_ blames you! Everyone blames themselves! The only person that you need to forgive is yourself. And you better do it fast because it isn't just Cody that we need to go after, it's your sister and Davis now, too."

Tai glanced up at her. "Did you forgive yourself?"

The question surprised her. She picked up her chair and sat down slowly, thinking deeply. "No," she said truthfully. "Not yet. But I think I'll be able to when we start doing something about it. We've all had enough time to sit back and feel sorry for ourselves. Now it's time to do something. It's not too late."

* * *

Ken had never been to Yolei's apartment before, but he knew where her family's store was and that she lived above it. An older girl that he assumed was her sister answered the door and looked Ken up and down before leading him to Yolei's room.

"You must be here to work on homework or something," she said snidely as they walked down the hallway to her room. "There's no way this is a social call."

Ken was confused but said nothing.

"Yolei, you have a visitor," the girl called through the door before stalking away. Yolei opened the door, her hard face showing brief confusion as she opened it. She glanced at Ken and a beat later slammed the door in his face.

He jumped. A few seconds later, he knocked on the door. "Yolei, please open the door." When she didn't answer, he tried the doorknob. It was unlocked. He opened it and stepped inside; she was sitting on her bed, facing the wall.

"I knew I needed a lock," she grumbled.

"Yolei, can we talk?"

"I know what you want to talk about," she said to the wall. "And I'm not going."

"Yolei –"

She turned and sent him such a vicious look that he took a step back. "Don't you dare make me feel bad about it," she said dangerously. "You're going to make me feel guilty about not going with you guys but, I swear to God, if you do that I'm going to kill you."

Ken frowned. "I don't understand. Why won't you go?"

Yolei turned back to the wall. "I was Cody's friend," she said. "He won't ever forgive me."

"We were all Cody's friend," Ken said.

"No!" Yolei shouted, closing her eyes. "I was his friend first. I was like a big sister to him. I of all people should have been there for him."

"Everyone's blaming themselves," Ken explained to her. "But we can't think that way. It's not any one person's fault. But we can fix it now."

Yolei's eyes were still closed and she was shaking her head. Ken thought he saw a tear roll down her cheek. "I can never face him," she said quietly. "I just wouldn't be able to look at him. You guys don't need me. You can do it without me."

"We do need you, Yolei," Ken said, stepping toward her. "Believe me, we do."

"Ken," she said in a low voice. "Please leave."

"But –"

"Just… go."

* * *

T.K. felt like a failure as he walked back to Izzy's apartment. He had failed in convincing Matt to join them. Matt was taking it much harder than he'd ever realized. He lived like an animal and was high as a kite when T.K. talked to him. Matt thought it was too late for them to go back and wouldn't even consider joining them. No matter what T.K. said, he couldn't get through to him. Matt didn't even think T.K. should go, which is when T.K. had said, "I'm not going to do to Kari what we did to Cody" before storming out.

When he arrived at Izzy's, Sora and Ken had returned – with Tai.

It was such a relief to see their old leader. If Tai was here, everything would be okay. He always knew what to do. "Tai," T.K. said, beaming. "I'm so glad you're here."

Tai just nodded desolately.

"Ken wasn't able to get Yolei to come," Izzy explained. "How'd it go with Matt?"

"He thinks we're wasting our time," T.K. said. "He won't come, either."

Izzy shook his head. "This is unfortunate but, to be honest, I didn't think we would get everyone. It's just been too hard on everyone."

"What about Joe and Mimi?"

"Joe's coming," Izzy said. "He thinks we have a good plan. He's taking a train tonight and will be here in the morning. Mimi wouldn't answer. She's too far away, though, I think."

"We have everyone but Matt, Yolei, and Mimi," said Tai. "Is there anyone else that can talk to them? Get them to come?"

"I don't think they need someone else to convince them at this point," Izzy said sadly. "They need to convince themselves. They knew we're going tomorrow morning, right?" T.K. and Ken both nodded. "They'll show up if they decide to come."

The next half an hour was spent informing Tai of their plan and preparing to leave the following day. "We don't know how long it's going to take," Izzy said. "Make sure to pack a bag full of food and other supplies that we might need."

Everyone nodded.

Sora checked her watch. "It's getting late and I need to catch the train back home." T.K. and Ken stood up as well, claiming the same.

"We'll see you guys tomorrow," Sora said as the three of them left.

On their walk to the train station, though, Sora got a sudden idea. She glanced at the two boys in her company and said, "I'll see you guys tomorrow, I left something at Izzy's!" They didn't question her and waved good-bye. She began walking back to Izzy's house until Ken and T.K. were out of sight and then quickly switched directions.

She jogged over to Matt's apartment, which wasn't that far from Izzy's. It was getting late on a Saturday night so she hoped he was still home as she knocked. It took almost a full minute for him to answer, and she gasped upon seeing his appearance.

His hair was long and messy, his eyes sunken and bloodshot, his clothes wrinkled and smelly. His apartment was equally as atrocious looking, from what she would see over Matt's shoulder. Oh God… what had happened to him?

Matt was looking at her as if he'd seen a ghost. "Sora?" he said, staring at her unblinkingly.

She smiled. "Hey, Matt. Can I… come in?"

Matt stood up to let her in. The place was absolutely disgusting and she suddenly regretted not suggesting that they take a walk instead.

"This way," he said, leading her not into his room but into the study. It was a bit cleaner than the living room. "My room's kind of a mess," he said apologetically. She was thankful they weren't in his room.

She sat down on the desk chair while he sat on the couch. He wouldn't stop staring at her. Finally, he said, "As much as I wish you were here on your own accord, something tells me you want to talk about what T.K. was already here to talk about, the same thing Ken wanted to talk about yesterday."

Sora nodded. "Well, I kind of am here on my own accord. The others don't know I'm here."

Matt stared at the ground, finally tearing his eyes away from her. "How many of you are going?"

"It's me, Izzy, Ken, T.K., Joe, and Tai," she said.

"Tai's going?" he said quietly.

"Yeah," said Sora. "He's having a rough time with it but he knows he doesn't really have a choice. He wants to find Kari."

Matt glanced up, all of a sudden scowling. "I guess you're here to tell me that I'm being an ass for not going and that I'm scum on earth, right?"

"Well, maybe the first one," Sora said irritably. "Why _won't_ you go, Matt?"

"I think it's a waste of time," said Matt. "The black orb told us we wouldn't ever have to fight evil again, and he was right, so he must be right about us not being able to get Cody back."

"We found a loophole, as I'm sure T.K. told you," said Sora. "Well, I can't really take credit for that – Kari and Davis found it first, and then Izzy and Ken."

Matt shrugged. "It'll be in vain."

Sora stared at him for a long time. She remembered the feelings she used to have for Matt and at this moment she couldn't remember how she'd ever had them. "Who are you?" she said quietly. He looked up at her sharply. "You're not the Matt I remember."

"We've all changed," he spat at her. "Don't act like you're so much better than me, Sora. You gave up, too. The only person that can rightfully say they're better than us is Davis."

"You're right," said Sora, and it hurt her to admit it. "I did give up. It pains me to say it, more than I ever could have imagined. I have the crest of love – how could I have let Cody go?" Her voice broke and Matt looked up at her again, with a softer expression. "I blame myself just as much as everyone else does, but…" She swallowed. "How can we turn the other cheek when we finally have a plan?"

Matt was frowning deeply, staring down at his hands. "You may have the crest of love," he said tiredly, "but I have the crest of friendship and I have been anything but a friend to everyone."

"You don't have to feel bad admitting that to me," she said quietly. "We're all ashamed of the last four years. But we can change it now, you know."

He was shaking his head. "There's no changing the past and I've clearly proven that I don't deserve my crest. I can't go back. My Digivice probably wouldn't let me go back."

"Stop it, Matt," Sora snapped. "You're just feeling sorry for yourself."

"Someone has to," he retorted. "No one else would."

"And why should we?" she shouted. "We're all going through the exact same thing." Matt stared at her harshly and Sora sighed, standing up and walking toward the door. "Look, Matt," she said, turning before she left. "I really think you should come with us. We could use you out there and you know that you're an important part of our team. I… I want you there with me." Sora swallowed painfully. "But I know I can't force you into anything. I hope you're able to find happiness in another way, but I know that for me I have to do this."

She walked out of Matt's apartment with a heavy heart. She'd been so confident that, since she'd been able to get Tai to join them, she'd be able to get through to Matt, too. It wasn't until she was safe on the train on her way home that she allowed herself to close her eyes and let the tears drip down her cheeks.

* * *

They had all decided to meet at Izzy's house before heading over to the beach to go to the Dark Ocean the following morning. Izzy hadn't been able to sleep well the night before, knowing that, for the first time in four years, he felt hope. They were finally leaving the world and going to save Cody. He was wrought with nerves and also somewhat excitement.

The first person to arrive was Tai, who lived the closest. He was merely a shadow of the Tai he remembered; he kept asking Izzy what to do and what the plan was. He seemed hesitant to take a leading role, which was strange of him. Izzy hoped that eventually Tai would get over it and resume being their leader because he was definitely better at it than Izzy was.

Joe was the next to arrive. He was a lot older looking, but not necessarily in a good way. It looked as though he worked himself too hard. He had a weary face and eyes with big bags underneath them. "Hi guys," he greeted, smiling wanly. "It's nice to see you again. I… I never thought we'd be doing this again." Joe had said to Izzy on the phone that he felt like a fatherly figure to everyone, since he was the oldest, and that was why he'd felt so responsible. Izzy had managed to convince him to come join them, though Joe tried to claim he had a big exam the following Monday.

"This is more important than schoolwork and you know it," Izzy had said irritably and Joe had hesitantly agreed.

Ken arrived next, followed by T.K. and then Sora. Each had a backpack full of things they thought they would need if they were going to be in the Digital World for a long period of time. They were about to leave for the beach a bit earlier than scheduled, since everyone was ready, when a knock came from Izzy's bedroom door.

All six of them were shocked to see Mimi standing there with a suitcase behind her. She looked exhausted but still managed a smile. "I got on a flight the morning after we spoke, Izzy," she said. "I just arrived. Are you guys going already?"

Sora embraced Mimi tightly. "I'm so glad you came," Sora said earnestly.

Mimi hugged her back, a few tears underneath her eyelashes. "Me too."

She stepped back and dragged her suitcase in her room. "When are we going?"

"Erm, well." Izzy glanced at his watch. "Now."

"Oh my!" Mimi gasped. She unzipped her suitcase and started rummaging around. "Let me just grab my essentials…"

She placed a few things in her bag before standing up straight again. "Where's the others? Matt and Yolei?"

"They're not coming," Izzy said dejectedly.

"I tried to talk to Yolei but she won't hear of it," Ken explained. "And T.K. talked to Matt."

Mimi looked at them all thoughtfully. "I don't know about Matt, but I think I can get Yolei to come," she said. "I'll meet you guys at the beach in a half hour, okay?" She was gone before anyone could say anything.

* * *

Yolei was not expecting Mimi Tachikawa of all people to show up at her door. Yes, she kind of expected another Digidestined to arrive to convince her, but Mimi was not one of them.

"Mimi!" Yolei gasped when she answered the door. "What're you—"

"I flew in from New York this morning," she explained. "Well, what are you waiting for? We've got a few friends to save!"

"You haven't heard?" Yolei sneered, her foul attitude back. "I'm not going."

Mimi folded her arms across her chest. "You seem proud of this fact."

Yolei stared at her. "Proud? Really? You think I'm _proud_?"

"I don't know what you are," said Mimi. "But you need to come with us. We're going to need you. Cody's going to need you."

Yolei glared. "No, he's not. I already let him down once."

"We all let him down," said Mimi softly. "But we're still going back."

She shook her head. "I can't go, Mimi. I can't."

"Why not?"

Yolei glanced at her, her eyes shining. "What if he doesn't forgive me?"

Mimi stared at her for a long moment and sighed. "Yolei… do you really think Cody will forgive you if you're the only one that doesn't come?"

"Everyone else is going?" Yolei asked softly.

"All but Matt, I think," said Mimi. "Cody will forgive us if we come for him. It might take time, but he will. What he won't forgive is if we don't even try."

* * *

They arrived at the beach early and waited for Mimi to return, praying that she was able to convince Yolei. No one was really talking; it was hard to believe that they were going back after so long. Once everyone had gotten together, T.K. explained how, the last time Kari went to the Dark Ocean, she'd been transported while at the beach, so they assumed that that was where the portal must be.

Sora sat on the grass on a cliff overlooking the ocean, her knees brought up to her chest. She wrapped her arms around them and rested her head on her knees. She would be glad if Yolei joined them, but it made her feel worse that Matt would then be the only one that didn't come. She had always loved Matt, first as a friend and maybe as more, but everything that happened tore them apart. Sometimes, really late at night, she thought that maybe, someday, they could find their way to each again. But this… this was unforgiveable. She would never get over Matt not coming with them.

Tai sat down next to her. "It's weird, isn't it?" he said in a far away voice. "Going back. I really never thought we would."

"It kind of hurts," Sora admitted. "Going back means owning up to everything we did wrong in the last four years."

Tai looked down. "It hurts more than I could have imagined," he said. "I thought about it last night. Even after I came with you to Izzy's yesterday, I still had doubts. But then I thought… I have the crest of courage for a reason, right? Even though I wasn't very courageous in the last couple of years, I've been courageous before. If I did it before, I can do it again."

"I'm proud of you, Tai." Sora tried to smile, but she was still thinking about Matt.

Tai seemed to be able to read her mind; they still had their best friend connection, so many years later. "I'm sorry he's not here."

"Me too."

A moment later two figures appeared in the distance. Ken spoke, "Is that Mimi? And Yolei?"

It was. The two girls were approaching them slowly, Yolei with a hard face and Mimi with a solemn one.

"Let's go before I have time to talk myself out of it," Yolei said by way of greeting.

Mimi approached Sora and whispered, "I was able to get her to agree on impulse. I feel as though she actually might leave if we wait too long."

Sora wanted to wait more but she knew that Matt would have arrived already if he'd wanted to come.

"Well, let's get going then," Izzy said. Everyone stood up and faced the ocean, gathering around Ken, who was holding his Digivice tightly in his hand. "Everyone grab on to me," he said and they all obliged. "Are we ready?" he asked.

For a moment, no one answered. "Yes," T.K. said finally. "Let's go."

Ken stared out at the ocean, thinking hard. He closed his eyes for a moment and, at the exact moment that he thrust his Digivice out at the ocean, they heard a yell.

"Wait!"

Everyone whipped around to see Matt sprinting toward them.

"Wait for me!"

But Ken had already pointed the Digivice to the ocean and they knew the plan had worked. It had lit up and he started to vibrate; a bright portal started to materialize before them.

"Matt!" Sora shouted. "Come on, Matt!"

He was sprinting as fast as he could, but the portal was forming quickly. Ken was starting to vibrate more violently and they all started to rise into the air toward it.

"Matt!" Mimi gasped.

"You can do it!" Tai shouted.

Sora, who was holding on to T.K.'s arm, stepped as far away from him as she could while still holding on to him. She stretched her hand out toward Matt, hoping to God that he would reach them in time. They were rising slowly, being pulled by Ken's Digivice.

Finally, at the last second possible, Matt reached them and jumped into the air, grabbing Sora's hand as they were pulled through the portal.


	9. Chapter 8

**September 4, 2011**

**AN: **So I have taken a bit of a break from writing this story, and it's unlikely that I'll be working on it much anytime soon (I'm returning to school on Tuesday, so I'll be very busy, but who knows – I seem to get a lot of inspiration during school… procrastination strategy, maybe?). However, because I always have more chapters written than I have posted, I decided that I should post this chapter. I also have chapter 9 written, so I'm not completely caught up with myself yet. It may be another couple months until I update, so please stick with me! I appreciate your patience!

* * *

_The Ultimate Sacrifice_

Chapter 8

Kari and Davis had walked up and down the beach on the Dark Ocean probably a hundred times. They had been very excited when they'd first arrived, because they had finally reached a breakthrough of sorts, but after a couple of days they started to feel dejected.

"There's no portal to the Digital World anywhere," Kari sighed as they sat in the cave they'd discovered and currently called home.

Davis jimmied his foot as he thought. "I don't know what to do," he said. "I mean, I thought we were so close to saving Cody, but we're really no closer than we were in the real world. As long as there's no portal for us to go through…"

"Should we try to get back to the real world?" asked Kari.

Davis thought for a moment before he shook his head. "No. Because what if we can't get back here? And I'm pretty sure the portal to the Digiworld isn't sealed here… we just have to find it."

"I'm glad you said that," said Kari. "Because… well, I tried to see if I could get back to the real world, and I couldn't open the portal. So we're stuck here."

"Great," grumbled Davis. "At least we have enough food," he said gesturing to the food they'd been able to gather in the three or four days that they'd been there.

Davis and Kari hadn't talked much since arriving. They'd spent all their time searching for a portal and theorizing out loud.

Today, though, as they sat together in the dark, dreary ocean, Kari spoke up. "Do you think people are wondering where we are?"

Davis hadn't really thought about that. They had left rather suddenly. "I guess so," he said. "I'm sure our parents are looking for us."

"You didn't tell anyone where we were going, did you?" Kari asked, although it sounded like she already knew the answer.

"Who would I tell, Jun?" he scoffed.

"I didn't tell anyone either," said Kari. "I wish… I should have told Tai."

"Why?"

Kari glanced at him. "So they could come after us."

"Do you really think they would?" Davis asked accusatorily. "They probably just think we ran away. They don't care about Cody."

Kari shook her head. "Of course they do. That's why everyone is so depressed. It's because they do care about Cody but couldn't figure out how to help."

"Bullshit," he said. "I don't believe a second of it."

Jumping up suddenly, Kari snapped, "Well, sorry we're not all as amazing as you are, Davis! You're just so great, dedicating your life to saving Cody, and we're all pieces of shit for not being able to help you, right?"

Davis pretended to think and then nodded. "Sounds about right to me."

Kari turned on her heel and began stomping away before changing her mind and stomping right back. "You need to get off your high horse, Davis, if we're really going to find Cody!" she yelled. "Yes, we all know that you were the most _honorable _one of us, actually trying to find Cody. But do not pretend like the rest of us don't care about him!"

"If you did care, you wouldn't have given up!" Davis shouted, standing up.

"Maybe we weren't as strong as you!" Kari retorted, and Davis was surprised by her tears.

She sank to the ground, sniffling, and Davis stepped back uncomfortably. "Um… don't cry," he said, patting her on the shoulder awkwardly. "You're strong," he said. "You're stronger than the others, at least. It's the two of us that are here, isn't it?"

"Yeah…" Kari sputtered. "But now we don't know where to go from here. What if we're stuck here forever? In this gray world…"

"We won't be," said Davis. "I promise. We'll find a way to get out. It took us four years to get here but I'm sure it won't take another four years to leave."

Kari choked out a laugh. "Oh, God I hope not."

"Besides, maybe the others will surprise us," Davis said, but as he said it he wanted to roll his eyes. _Yeah right._ "Maybe they'll figure it out."

Suddenly Kari glanced up at me. "I forgot!" she gasped.

"What?"

"I talked to Ken the day before we left!"

"Oh yeah!" exclaimed Davis. "I forgot, you told me that."

"Maybe he'll realize we're missing and tell the others," said Kari.

"Maybe," said Davis, but he wouldn't let his hopes be raised. They'd been crushed before by that group of people and he wouldn't let them be crushed again.

The next day, Kari and Davis were starting to get antsy. There was only so many times that they could walk the beach searching for a portal that seemingly didn't exist.

"What are we going to do?" Kari asked, starting to worry.

Davis was beginning to worry as well, but he had to stay strong for Kari. "We'll just have to keep theorizing," he said. "Try different things."

Kari sighed and walked along the beach again, staring out at the ocean. "This place is so creepy," she said. "It's hard for me to feel optimistic here."

He knew what she meant; he felt as though he had to try extra hard to keep going. It had miraculously been easier in the real world than it had been here. Well, it wasn't called the Dark Ocean for nothing, he assumed.

Suddenly they heard a noise from behind them. The two of them jumped and glanced up at the sky, where a portal like the one they'd arrived through began materializing.

"Davis, is that –" Kari stated, but she already knew what it was.

"A portal!"

"Do you think it's to the Digiworld?" she asked as the portal grew.

"I don't know," Davis said, his heart race increasing. He reached to his belt and gripped his Digivice, but before he could point to the sky, he noticed another shape forming.

A strange silhouette was taking shape and it took Davis and Kari a moment to realize what it was – suddenly, the rest of the Digidestined, all holding on to each other, formed in the portal.

Kari and Davis were frozen as they watched, mouths agape, as their nine friends fell out of the portal and onto the beach in a heap. They were all groaning as they disentangled themselves from one another.

"Tai?" was the first thing Kari uttered.

They all looked up at Davis and Kari, not having noticed them before.

"Kari!" Tai jumped up and ran toward his sister, throwing his arms around her and spinning her around. She was stiff in the embrace – they hadn't acted like this in a very long time. "I'm so glad you're okay – and you're here –"

Davis was staring at them. "You're all… you're all here."

"How did you know where we were?" asked Kari.

"We'll tell you the whole story," said Izzy, as everyone sat down in the sand.

Kari, Davis, and Tai joined the group sitting cross-legged on the ground. Davis felt strange with them all; he had spent four years hating them and suddenly they were all together again. Well, except for Cody – then he remembered why his feelings were there.

Izzy and Ken launched into the story of how they'd figured out where Kari and Davis had gone based on Ken's conversation with Kari. They managed to recruit everyone with a couple of days and Ken had taken them all to the Dark Ocean with his Digivice.

"We were hoping you would still be here," finished Izzy. "But I guess that means you haven't been able to find a portal to the Digital World?"

Kari shook her head. "No, not yet. We've looked everywhere, it feels like."

"Well, we've made it this far," said Izzy. "I have no doubt that we'll be able to find it."

The group fell into an uncomfortable silence. They were no longer the same people they were the last time they had all been together; so much had happened and so much time had passed. There was a huge elephant in the room and it was the lack of the presence of Cody.

Slowly people started getting up and wandering around, holding their Digivices and searching for a portal. Kari stayed sitting down, looking around at everyone. No one was really talking, but they were all here, together. Her heart soared – she didn't think it would ever happen again.

"Kari."

She looked up and saw T.K. standing above her. She swallowed. He looked so different, so grown up. She hadn't seen him in so long. Her stomach felt like it was all knotted up.

She stood up to meet his gaze. "I… I'm glad you came," she said, avoiding his eye contact.

"Yeah." He stared at her and she wasn't sure if he wanted her to say anything more. After a few seconds, it occurred to her that he might be waiting for her to apologize – she had been mostly responsible for their falling out. She wasn't ready to do that, though. She'd been owning up to a lot of painful things lately, and she felt tired.

She turned and walked away from him, watching the others search for the portal. She couldn't help but think with a sinking feeling that they might be in vain. She and Davis hadn't been able to find it… how would they?

They spent the rest of the day combing the beach for any sign of a portal or for a clue as to how they could enter the Digital World. They eventually retired to the cave that Kari and Davis had found, empty-handed.

They slept as well as they could in a dark, damp cave, and the next day set out again. It was amazing how differently they worked together now compared to before. Years ago, they would have been talking and laughing and joking around and even bickering, but now everyone was silent, as if they wanted to get their work done as soon as possible so they could just go home.

Around lunchtime, as everyone took a break, they started to talk, but it wasn't positive. "I can't find anything," Sora said.

Mimi sat down next to her. "Me either. I don't even know what we're looking for."

Izzy sat against the cliff with his backpack next to him, thinking hard. Tai glanced over at him, also thoughtful, before a sudden idea struck him.

"Wait! Izzy!" he cried and Izzy jumped.

"What is it, Tai?"

"Did you bring your laptop with you?"

"Of course." Izzy opened his backpack and extracted the now ancient laptop that had accompanied Izzy in their very first Digimon adventure. "It's slow and big, but it works. Why?"

Tai took out his Digivice and stared at it. "Maybe we can open a portal to the Digital World through your computer."

"But Tai," said Sora, "we tried that a million times."

"Yeah, in the real world," said Tai, although his voice hinted that he was starting to doubt his idea.

"Tai's right," Mimi spoke up. "In the real world, the portal didn't work, but we're in the Dark Ocean now. We should be able to open it."

Everyone in unison pulled out their Digivices, holding them tightly but all too afraid to be the first to make a move.

"Go on, Tai," Kari said quietly and Tai looked around at her. She nodded at him. She knew that he was hesitant to take on a leadership role, but they needed him. He was their leader.

Tai glanced over at Davis, whose jaw was set but he nodded as well. "Go for it."

Sighing, Tai stood up and stepped forward. Izzy opened his laptop and pointed it towards Tai. Everyone stood around in a messy circle, watching with bated breath as Tai closed his eyes and pointed his Digivice at the laptop.

The computer abruptly lit up and Tai's Digivice activated for the first time in years. He felt his whole body start to pulsate and he was being pulled toward the computer. His body contorted and had the sensation of being squeezed through a very small space – he'd forgotten what going through the portal felt like.

A moment later he fell back onto the sand, but it wasn't the same sand of the Dark Ocean. This sand was soft and warm – the sun was in the sky. Tai blinked as he looked around; the sky, the beach, the trees – he knew where he was in. This was the Digital World.

The first thing he thought about, something that hadn't occurred to him in the furor of the last couple of days, was his Digimon partner.

"Agumon?" he yelled, although he doubted Agumon was around. He stood and walked along the beach; he wasn't sure where he was. He had been all over the Digital World but he wasn't sure if this was somewhere he'd been before or not.

A few moments later the rest of the Digidestined were transported onto the beach, with all their backpacks in tow.

"We made it," Davis said in awe as he looked around. He had been trying for so long to get back; it felt like a dream that he had actually arrived.

"Do you think our Digimon are around?" Mimi asked; now that they were here, they couldn't help but think about their friends.

"I don't know," said Izzy. He looked left and right. "Looks as if my computer is still in the Dark Ocean. Oh well, it lived a good life."

The next ten minutes were spent with them combing the beach and the forest bordering it as they searched. "Biyomon!" "Tentomon!" "Patamon!" "Hawkmon!" They yielded no results; not only did they not find their own Digimon, they couldn't seem to find any.

"Should we be suspicious?" asked Ken.

T.K. looked over at Tai. "What do you think we should do?"

Tai blinked at him and then looked at everyone else. "Um…" He sighed. "Well, if we just walk along the beach, we'll just be walking along the edge of wherever we are, so I think we should go into the forest."

"Good idea," said Mimi. "Well, let's go!" She and Izzy led the group into the forest.

Again, the talking ceased. It seemed as though no one had anything to say to each other aside from topics that had to do with the Digital World. The air was thick with tension and their footsteps sounded louder than normal.

Matt was walking at the back of the group with his hands deep in his pockets; Sora fell in step next to him. "So," she said abruptly, "you came."

They hadn't had a chance to speak since leaving the real world. Matt glanced at her. "Yes, clearly."

"What changed your mind?"

He was silent for a moment. "At the end of the day, I'm T.K.'s older brother," he said. "Even though I may still think our time here is a waste… I have to be here for my brother."

They weren't walking for much longer when Davis suddenly stopped. "I can't be here," he said sharply. Everyone turned to stare at him.

"Davis, what are you talking about?" asked T.K. "We're in the Digital World."

"I mean, I can't be here with all of you." He was looking down as he spoke and it seemed as though he were talking to himself instead of the others.

He turned to leave but Izzy called after him. "Davis, what are you doing? You can't leave!"

"Watch me!" he snapped. "You think I'm just going to hang out with you guys in the Digiworld after all that time you guys let me down?" He began to stalk away.

"Davis, don't go!" Kari yelled angrily after him. "We have to stick together!"

Davis stopped and turned back at them all, laughing harshly. "Oh, really? Then what have the last four years been?"

No one had an answer for him, so he turned to leave again.

"Wait, Davis," said Ken. "I'm coming with you."

Davis snarled at Ken, "I don't –"

"Don't argue with me," Ken cut in menacingly, which surprised Davis enough to not argue.

"Whatever." He marched away with Ken following close by.

The remaining nine glanced around at each other as Davis and Ken disappeared from view. "Should we go after them?" Sora asked.

"I don't think we'll get them to listen," Izzy said. "We can't force them into anything."

"I… I can't be here either," a small voice spoke up. They all turned around to see Yolei. She had barely spoken to anyone since arriving in the Dark Ocean and had held the same hard, angry expression the entire time. Everyone was surprised to hear her voice, as if they'd forgotten what it sounded like.

"Yolei?" said Mimi.

Yolei glared at them all. "I didn't even want to come here," she said in a low, dangerous voice. She turned on her heel and ran.

"Wait! Yolei!" Mimi ran after her.

Another silence fell. They were down four people.

"I didn't want to be the only one to leave…" Tai spoke up finally. "But I have to go, too."

"Tai," Sora said irritably, but he shook his head. She knew that he was having trouble picking up his leadership role again; he's made one executive decision since they arrived and was already bolting.

"Tai, can I… can I come with you?" Kari asked, looking suddenly like the little girl she was the very first time she came to the Digital World.

He looked down at his sister with little compassion in his face. "I'm sorry, Kari," he said, but she didn't think he sounded sorry. "I have to go alone. Please, don't come after me."

He turned and disappeared into the woods, his footsteps decreasing in sound until all was silent around them.

Izzy looked around. Their group of eleven was down to six.


End file.
